


Bright Lights Cast a Shadow

by Kliegology



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Diners, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Anal Sex, Angst, Blow Jobs, Boys Kissing, Crushing Crushes, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Love, First Meetings, First Time, Fluff, Frottage, Hand Jobs, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, M/M, Making Love, Paramedic Diego Hargreeves, Waitress Vanya Hargreeves, love so hard it hurts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2020-10-10 18:23:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20532530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kliegology/pseuds/Kliegology
Summary: When Klaus first opened his eyes he was certain he had died. Again.He was surrounded by bright white light, and hovering over him was one of the most beautiful men he had ever seen. He supposed God had changed their face again and reached up, dazedly, to touch.‘Hey,’ the man said, voice rich and deep. ‘Stay with me, baby.’Klaus promptly lost consciousness.





	1. Chapter 1

When Klaus first opened his eyes he was certain he had died. Again.

He was surrounded by bright white light, and hovering over him was one of the most beautiful men he had ever seen. He supposed God had changed their face again and reached up, dazedly, to touch.

He frowned at the realisation his arm was too heavy to lift. Every bone in his body ached. Not dead then. Not yet. Reality came rushing back. The blaring sirens of the ambulance, the rocking of the bed he lay strapped to, the fluorescent lights half blinding his vision.

The beautiful face remained, and Klaus stared up into the dark eyes, trying desperately to blink the blurriness from his vision. The man swam suddenly into focus, a triumphant grin forming as he met Klaus’s eye.

‘Hey,’ the man said, voice rich and deep. ‘Stay with me, baby.’

Klaus promptly lost consciousness.

…

He blinked awake again to frenzied shouting and found himself being wheeled at high speed down a hospital corridor. The God-like man was still with him, his hand gripping Klaus’s arm as they moved, as if attempting to anchor him to life.

Above him the fluorescent ceiling lights flashed by at dizzying speed. With a monumental effort Klaus lifted his other arm from the bed, and grabbed the man’s wrist, holding them together. He squeezed, determined to secure his attention. He needed to tell him something, something important.

‘We-’ he cleared his throat, which felt as if it had been stuffed with sand. He bit his lip and frowned, trying again. His voice came out in a gravelly murmur. ‘We’re _flying_.’

The man looked down at him again, stumbling to a halt, his brown eyes stern. He was no longer smiling.

Then a new, unwelcome hand was grabbing at Klaus’s own, prizing his fingers from around the man’s wrist, as they were pulled roughly apart. Klaus was wheeled around a corner, and through a set of doors which swung closed behind them with a soft thrum that felt deafening. He closed his eyes again, having lost his reason for keeping them open, and sank immediately back into darkness.

…

He awoke for the third time to the familiar bleeping of machinery, to warm scratchy sheets, to an empty room. There was a bitter taste in his mouth and a crushing pain in his stomach. He flexed his fingers experimentally beneath the sheets and was relieved to find he could move.

‘Well, here we go again,’ a sing-song voice came from the corner of the room.

Klaus lifted his head just in time to see a shadowy figure flickering in to view. Ben. He groaned and closed his eyes, squeezing them shut in an effort to make the man disappear. When he opened them again, Ben was sat cross-legged on the end of the hospital bed. Klaus’s efforts to erase him appeared to have only made him more corporeal.

Ben shook his head, disappointed. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

‘Well,’ Klaus said, voice croaky. ‘I suppose I should be thankful you spared me your presence in the ambulance.’

‘Yeah I lost you for a while there,’ Ben was wearing the small smile he reserved solely for occasions when he was being very serious. ‘I went and put a pot of coffee on, just in case you were finally joining me. I’m saving you a nice spot in the afterlife.’

Klaus grimaced. They both know there _are_ no nice spots in the afterlife. ‘You know I can’t die, Benny,’ he shrugged.

They were interrupted by the door swinging open as a nurse poked her head into the room. Seeing Klaus awake, she beamed and bustled in. The woman was an odd mix of glamorous and matronly. Her hair was set into blonde ringlets and she wore a tiny white apron over her scrubs. Her lips were painted a vibrant shade of red that Klaus was certain must be violating the uniform policy.

‘Hello, sweetie,’ she said, voice soft. ‘You look much better.’

‘Really?’ Klaus perked up a little. He’d kill for a hand mirror and a tube of lipgloss right now. ‘I feel like I’ve just crawled out of Satan’s a-’

He was cut off by Ben clearing his throat pointedly.

The nurse reached over the end of the bed to straighten the tangled covers. Her arm passed straight through Ben’s stomach and Klaus winced in sympathy.

‘Are you still in pain, honey?’ The nurse asked, watching him with concern. ‘Shall I up your dose?’

‘Ooh,’ Klaus clapped his hands together, delighted. ‘Yes please.’

The nurse fussed around him for a good twenty minutes, smoothing his sheets, checking the IV taped to his wrist, even brushing his hair back from his sweaty forehead. She pressed a cool towel to his temples and he closed his eyes, blissfully calm. The woman smelled of roses and chamomile tea.

‘I _like_ you,’ he told her. She was a welcome change from the usual nurses, who raced in and out of his room, throwing him disapproving looks as they went.

She smiled at him and patted his hand before clicking away on her high heels. ‘I’ll bring you some jello.’

…

Ben rested his chin on his hands and regarded him philosophically; lips pursed in a way that told Klaus he was about to get a lecture.

‘_Jello_!’ Klaus said. He stretched out and wriggled his toes under the scratchy blankets, gazing happily at the ceiling.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Ben said. His voice was strained, and Klaus could tell he was struggling to get the words out. ‘Just because you haven’t died yet, doesn’t mean you can’t.’

‘I can’t,’ Klaus insisted, because that was easier than considering the alternative. This was his sixth overdose in two years. His heart had stopped twice. He was playing one life-long game of Russian roulette, only every gun chamber was loaded, and he didn’t know if any of the bullets would get the job done.

Ben ignored him. ‘I mean… what if you’re being kept here for something? Maybe you have a set purpose, a role assigned by the universe. But as soon as it’s fulfilled you disappear. _Poof_.’ He fluttered his hand demonstratively in the air. ‘Or you might have a set number of lives. Have you considered that? What if you’re running out?’

Klaus screwed his nose up. His head hurt. It was too early in the morning for this conversation. Or afternoon. He’d lost track of time. But he knew for sure that it was _too early_. ‘You mean… like a cat?’

Ben rolled his eyes. ‘If you like.’

‘I’d be a tabby,’ Klaus murmured, leaning back against the pillows and allowing his eyes to drift closed. Fresh sweat was beading rapidly on his forehead. He was starting withdrawal. ‘A feral little alley cat… wild and free and- and, _insatiable_. Sexually voracious.’

He sensed, rather than saw, Ben grimace. The man climbed off the bed, striding over to the window, where he flickered briefly in and out of sight. Klaus was losing consciousness, sinking back towards sleep.

‘Talking of which,’ the man said, his back to Klaus as he pressed his forehead against the window. ‘You remember the paramedic you were simpering at?’

‘Excuse you,’ Klaus frowned at him. ‘I don’t _simper_.’

Ben turned back around to face him. He put on a high-pitched voice, and rolled his eyes back in his head, giving him a deranged appearance. ‘_We’re flying,_’ he mimicked.

Klaus scrambled around in his mind and retrieved a brief memory of dark eyes and a broad grin, the sensation of warm skin beneath his hand. ‘Oh, _yes_. My hero.’ He was only half joking. ‘What about him?’

‘He’s having a smoke outside your window.’

Klaus hadn’t moved so quickly since the Black Friday flash sale at Victoria’s Secret. He leapt out of bed, standing upright so suddenly that all the blood rushed from his head. He dragged the IV stand behind him as he staggered over to the window, blinking away the dark spots that threatened to cloud his vision.

They were no more than a couple of storeys up, looking out over the hospital’s parking lot. Reclined against the side of an ambulance below them was the man whose hand Klaus had been squeezing no more than a few hours ago.

Klaus leaned heavily on the windowsill for support, nearly pressing his nose to the glass. The man’s dark hair was tousled, as though he had been roughing a hand through it and his jaw was shadowed with stubble. His uniform was slightly creased, and the shirt was rolled up to his elbows. He sucked on a cigarette, frowning, with dark circles beneath his eyes.

As they watched, the nurse from Klaus’s room emerged from a fire exit. She reached out and rested a hand on the man’s shoulder, leaning in to say something that made a broad grin split across his face.

‘His name is Diego,’ Ben told him, examining his fingernails in a great show of disinterest. ‘And you nearly puked on his shoes.’

Klaus looked back at the man. Diego was not the ethereal creature his semi-conscious brain had conjured up. He was a little shorter, a little broader, a little scruffier. A whole lot more real. Klaus’s breath misted up the glass. He was _perfect_.

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE WE GO! This is gonna be a long one. 
> 
> Come find me on Tumblr: https://kliegology.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> Moodboards for all my fics here: https://kliegology.tumblr.com/myfic


	2. Chapter 2

Klaus flung himself away from the window in a clumsy pirouette, pressing himself flat against the wall. He leaned over and snuck another look through the glass. Yes. The sexy paramedic was definitely squinting up at him.

‘_Fuck_,’ Klaus muttered, his cheeks turning very hot. ‘I think he saw me.’

‘And…’ Ben looked astonished by his sudden shyness. ‘That’s bad?’

‘I’m not _decent,’ _Klaus hissed. He was draped in a hospital gown that ended half way down his thighs and hung open at the back, leaving very little to the imagination. His own clothes lay folded neatly on a chair in the corner. He reached out to grab his leather hotpants, shimmying into them under the gown.

Ben shot him a doubtful look. ‘You’re _never_ decent.’

Klaus was only half way into his sequinned blouse when he heard movement outside the door. He was staring down at the right sleeve, debating the best way to get into it without removing the IV tube pumping pain medication into his veins.

‘Jello?’ he asked hopefully, remembering the motherly nurse’s promise.

He looked up to see a crowd of corpses floating eerily through the closed door. Their eyes were pale and empty, fixated on Klaus.

‘Not jello,’ Ben supplied helpfully.

The lady leading the ghostly gathering had an open cavity at the front of her skull and her hair was matted with blood. She extended a long, pale arm from within the folds of her hospital gown, reaching out to him. She blinked rapidly at him, open-mouthed. Her expression was one of a nocturnal creature seeing the sun for the first time.

‘Ah,’ Klaus sighed. He had hoped he’d have a little longer. ‘They found me.’ He ripped the IV from his arm. ‘Time to go.’

The ghosts refused to part for him and he was faced with the choice of passing through their cold, damp bodies or jumping from the window. Without hesitation, he chose the window. There was a catch on it, preventing it from opening more than a crack, and Klaus released it with trembling hands.

Flinging it wide open, he climbed on to the window ledge and threw himself at a nearby drainpipe. Miraculously, it held under his weight, and he shimmied down it with an ease that could have been described as elegance if his leather hot-pants weren’t squealing against the metal piping.

His bare feet hit the ground with a painful smack. He staggered off the pipe and turned to choose his escape route.

A few feet away, Diego the paramedic had frozen with his cigarette halfway to his open mouth and was watching Klaus with an incredulous expression scrunching up his handsome face.

They stared at each other for three endless seconds, and then Diego dropped his cigarette. His eyes narrowed and he bent his knees slightly, preparing to launch himself at Klaus.

At that moment, another crowd of ghosts streamed out of the hospital doors. Klaus shot Diego an apologetic glance, hoping to convey the inner battle between his enthusiasm at the idea of being jumped on and his reluctant need to leave _immediately_.

The man sprang forwards, panther-like, and Klaus turned on his heel and fled, bare feet beating painfully against the asphalt of the parking lot. He dove in and out of parked cars, scampering over the bonnets of those that were in his way.

Behind him, Diego was slowed by an apparent reluctance to do any damage to private property. The man skirted around the vehicles, wincing as Klaus left windscreen wipers and wing mirrors in his wake.

‘Oi,’ he shouted, as Klaus reached the edge of the parking lot. He sounded really, _really_, pissed. ‘Get back here, you little fuck. You’re crazy.’

Klaus plunged into the scrubby wasteland that bordered the parking lot. He crossed it at speed, breathing hard, thorns snagging at his ankles. Glancing back over his shoulder he dived, headfirst, into a tangled mass of bushes.

He battled with them and then fell through, rolling down a grassy bank and onto a main road. A car avoided him with a screech of brakes and the blaring of a horn. Klaus rolled to his feet and stood up, sticking his finger up at the car as it disappeared down the road.

‘He’s right,’ Ben said, appearing back at his side. ‘You _are_ crazy.’

…

‘I just don’t think that was a very professional thing to say,’ Klaus complained to Ben, hours later as they traipsed along the high street, in search of a coffee shop that would serve him a latte for fifty cents. Diego’s words had cut a little close to the bone. ‘I bet he doesn’t usually go around telling his patients they’re crazy.’

‘He probably doesn’t usually have to chase them across parking lots,’ Ben pointed out, drifting along behind him. He kept flickering in and out of existence, and Klaus sensed he was getting bored of the conversation. They had been talking about Klaus’s new favourite paramedic for at least half an hour now. ‘Or watch them shimmy down drainpipes in leather hotpants.’

Klaus sighed heavily, hesitating outside his favourite diner. He tugged on the ends of his shorts, pulling them a little lower down his thighs. They barely covered his ass at the best of times, and they’d definitely ruched up as he slid down the drainpipe. He’d probably given Diego an eyeful. To think he had been worried about the man seeing him in a hospital gown.

Ben stuck his head through the closed door of the diner and peered around. He withdrew and stuck his thumbs up at Klaus. ‘Vanya’s in. If you still want that latte.’

…

Klaus was _between addresses._ As a result, he spent a large amount of time in coffee shops, at least until night fell and he could take himself somewhere a little more stimulating. There were always plenty of people willing to offer him a bed for the night.

He was currently engaged in a semi-regular arrangement with a man named Marco, who spoke in a heavy Italian accent, made incredible osso bucco and liked Klaus to call him _Daddy_.

This didn’t particularly bother Klaus. He was more than willing to exchange dirty talk in return for a hot meal and somewhere safe to sleep. Besides, Marco wasn’t exactly an eyesore.

Some nights, though, he preferred to spend in peace. On these occasions he visited the diner, where Vanya would bring him fries and milkshakes for whatever scraps of change Klaus could scrape out of his pockets.

The diner was open twenty-four hours, its lights a welcome beacon of light and warmth. Vanya put his favourite songs on the jukebox and, when the manager wasn’t around, let him nap in one of the booths.

‘You’re sweating,’ she said, when Klaus settled down in his favourite corner booth. She watched him with concern through her wide, dark eyes, absentmindedly wiping her hands on the pink, frilly apron, which she hated but Klaus adored. ‘Are you ok?’

‘Oh, all fine and dandy. You know me. I like to get a little down and dirty sometimes.’ Klaus winked at her, though the tremble in his voice gave him away.

He was already mentally planning his route to his dealer. Somewhere between collapsing and waking up in the hospital, his stash of pills had been removed from his shorts pocket.

‘I’ll bring you the peanut butter French toast,’ Vanya said. ‘And a banana freakshake.’

‘And a side of jalapeno poppers?’ Klaus asked hopefully.

She rolled her eyes, as she walked away, but stopped at the jukebox to put on The Smiths. Klaus’s favourite. He settled back on the pink vinyl bench and closed his eyes, humming along as the music washed over him. 

…

Disaster struck no more than three days later. Klaus’s dealer found a girlfriend.

He had met her in a library- the dealer told him- when they’d both reached for the same book at the same time, and they hadn’t spent a night apart since. It was a heartwarming tale and Klaus was utterly horrified by it. He’d run out of money, and now that his dealer was _involved, t_he man was unwilling to accept anything else Klaus could offer him.

He left their usual alleyway rendez-vous shaking violently, and with nothing to show for the three hours he’d waited for the other man to turn up. Vanya wasn’t in at the diner so Klaus went to spend the night with Marco. Marco of the excellent osso bucco.

The man had a stash of pills in his bedside table that he was more than happy to share in return for a few favours. Marco was rough with him, did everything too hard, until the line between pleasure and pain started to blur and then stopped existing altogether.

Klaus didn’t hate it. He woke up the next morning warm and full of good food, but aching intimately, and with a few too many bruises blossoming on his neck.

It took another twenty four hours for Klaus to track down his second-choice of dealer. The man had a vindictive streak, and he laughed when Klaus turned up dripping sweat, offering him a pilfered twenty bucks with trembling fingers. He handed him a bag containing six small pills in return.

Klaus stared at him. ‘Is that it?’

The dealer grinned, baring his teeth as he backed away down the alley. ‘That’s all you're worth, sweetheart.’

The alley was cold and damp. Klaus sank down into onto the ground regardless, and took all six pills at once, chasing them down with a bottle of Tanqueray he’d borrowed from the corner store. He groaned a sigh of relief as the tremors stopped wracking his body, and collapsed into a blissful heap against a wall.

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to hit you all with the angst! I promise to make it worth your while.
> 
> Commenters get a freakshake of their choice... and a Klaus to share it with...


	3. Chapter 3

‘How’s my favourite damsel in distress?’ Diego asked, when he opened his eyes.

They were back in the ambulance, accompanied by the screeching of sirens, and Diego was leaning over him. He looked much more cheerful than the last time Klaus had seen him. Perhaps even a little smug. He was clean-shaven, and smelled of spicy aftershave, and his brown eyes twinkled when he looked at Klaus.

‘Oh,’ Klaus struggled to sit up, but was pushed down again by Diego with a gentle, but very firm hand to his chest. ‘Oh, _hi.’_

Diego clucked his tongue disapprovingly. ‘You stay down there.’

The ambulance lurched around a corner and the man fell in closer, his other hand gripping the side of the bed for support.

‘With pleasure,’ Klaus murmured, eyeing the way Diego’s muscles tensed beneath his shirt as he braced himself. He lifted a hand to meet Diego’s, still on his chest, and the man shook him off, turning around to rummage in a medic’s bag as he hid a grin.

Klaus’s head was surprisingly clear, and he suspected he had merely fallen asleep under the bridge. The ambulance had probably been called by a concerned passer-by, disturbed by the empty bottle of gin clutched in Klaus’s hands.

‘Your favourite damsel in distress,’ Klaus mused. ‘I thought I was a _crazy little fuck_.’

Diego did not look in the least abashed. He shrugged as he pulled a syringe out of the bag. ‘Yeah. That too.’

‘Oh,’ Klaus bit his lip and looked the man up and down, as seductively as he could manage while on his back in an ambulance. ‘Well, I guess I don’t mind being _your_ little fuck.’

_‘Really?’ _Ben piped up. He was sat, cross-legged, in the corner of the ambulance, watching Klaus with an expression of disgust. Diego just looked alarmed.

‘Too forward?’ Klaus asked. Maybe he was a little more out of it than he’d first thought. The man’s face was swaying in and out of focus.

‘Yes,’ Ben and Diego replied in unison.

‘But I’m gonna let you get away with it, ‘ Diego continued. ‘Because you’re still high. And I look damn good in this uniform.’

Klaus opened his mouth to agree, only to have Diego’s hand clamped over it. He groaned in quasi-protest beneath it. The man was wearing a latex glove which, while disappointing, Klaus was perversely grateful for, as it tempered his sudden urge to bite.

‘Now be a good boy,’ Diego told him, leaning in very close and speaking in little more than a whisper. ‘And let me do my job.’

The heart monitor began beeping at double time, and Klaus felt his cheeks burning. He shot the machine a filthy look. Diego glanced over at it too, then back at Klaus, an expression somewhere between concern and amusement on his face.

…

The ambulance driver did _not_ like Klaus. This became very clear when they arrived back at the hospital, and the man flung open the ambulance doors, shooting him a look of absolute revulsion. On the other hand, he didn’t seem to like Diego much either. So Klaus didn’t set much store by his taste.

‘Get him out of here,’ the man said. ‘We’ve got people who actually need us out there.’

Klaus didn’t think anyone _needed _this grumpy, hulking man. But he kept politely quiet, exchanging a grimace with Diego, who smirked back at him.

‘Out,’ the man snapped.

‘Cool it, Luther,’ Diego huffed. He wheeled Klaus out of the ambulance at a leisurely pace, a hand on his arm again, although he didn’t really need steadying.

The man had peeled off his latex gloves and Klaus took a minute to be thankful that he had chosen a tank-top that morning, and could appreciate the rough warmth of the man’s skin against his own. Diego’s fingers squeezed slightly before letting go, as he was rolled unceremoniously over to hospital staff.

He pointed a finger sternly at Klaus before he was carted away. ‘You gonna stay put this time?’

‘Probably not,’ Klaus said. He pouted. ‘You’d better stay here and keep an eye on me.’

Luther pulled Diego away before he could respond, but Klaus was gratified to see him glance back over his shoulder at him. His stomach flipped as the man winked before he was dragged out of sight, Luther speaking sternly to him as they went.

…

‘Well that was embarrassing,’ Ben griped at him.

They had been left alone in a small room by a doctor who seemed to be attending to several people at once. He had only managed to take Klaus’s blood pressure before he had been called away by a harried looking nurse.

Klaus sat hunched on the bed with his hands pressed over his ears. Not far away, someone was howling, although Klaus couldn’t be sure whether the noises belonged to someone living or dead.

‘I’m not embarrassed,’ Klaus protested, massaging his temples as he fought off a splitting headache.

‘You might as well have held up a sign saying _I Want You,’ _Ben said, nose wrinkling in disdain.

‘If they don’t know,’ Klaus began, knowledgeably, ‘then they can’t do anything about it. Best to have it all out there in the open. Men like that.’

Ben snorted, eyeing Klaus’s skimpy outfit. He’d paired the tank top with a skirt which ended half way down his thighs. ‘I bet they do.’

‘Anyway,’ Klaus continued, ‘I think he likes me too.’

‘He’s humouring you,’ Ben told him, always one to deliver brutal honesty. ‘You’re just stroking his ego.’

‘I _wish _I was stroking his “ego_”,’ _Klaus said, smirking, just as the doctor reappeared.

The man took one look between Klaus and the apparently empty chair he had been caught speaking too.

‘I’m gonna send you for a psychiatric assessment,’ he said, scribbling something on his clipboard. ‘Wait here.’

He disappeared again and Ben raised an eyebrow at Klaus, rising from the chair. ‘Time to go?’

‘Oh yes,’ Klaus agreed, getting to his feet and straightening out his skirt. ‘Time to go.’

…

Weeks passed in which Klaus managed to stay reasonably sober. Weeks passed without him seeing Diego. On the plus side, he supposed he was never going to see the man again, and didn’t feel bad about letting him slip into his fantasies.

‘Who is Diego?’ Marco asked, halting suddenly in his position braced above him on the bed.

‘Eh, what?’ Klaus said. His heart lurched. He opened his eyes reluctantly; aware he was turning a rosy shade of pink. He tugged at the man’s hips in an attempt to get him to resume his thrusting, hoping he might let it slide.

‘This is what you said,’ Marco said, frowning, his accent growing stronger with his annoyance. ‘You said _mm, yeah, Diego.’ _He put on a high pitched breathy voice which Klaus thought was deeply unfair.

‘Oh, did I?’ Klaus feigned surprise, as if he hadn’t just been in the process of imagining the paramedic’s naked body in excruciating detail. ‘Slip of the tongue. I don’t know a Diego. Keep going.’

Marco pulled away, looking alarmingly wet eyed. He stood up and shot Klaus a hurt look before tugging on a dressing gown and leaving the room. He called back over his shoulder, voice shaking, before he slammed the door. ‘You can leave in the morning.’

Klaus stared after him in bewilderment. It hadn’t even begun to occur to him that the other man might have an emotional investment in their arrangement. He ignored the beginnings of guilt clawing at the pit of his stomach at the sound of angry crashing noises on the other side of the bedroom door. It looked like he had just lost his B&B. He was _really _going to miss that osso bucco.

He woke up the next morning to find the cramped little flat was empty. In his temper, Marco had smashed several glasses in the kitchen and left the shards of glass littering the floor, perhaps hoping Klaus would step on them on his way out.

He helped himself to the stash of pills in Marco’s bedside table and pocketed them, pausing at the doorway, before returning for the lube. Marco would be pissed, but it didn’t matter. Klaus wasn’t coming back. He took a tupperware full of cassoeula from the fridge too.

Ben was delighted. He hadn’t liked Marco. They celebrated that night in a sheltered spot under a railway bridge, with the cold cassoeula and a bottle of red wine that Klaus had liberated from a corner store. He chased it down with the full bottle of pills and then staggered to his feet. He needed more wine.

When he woke up again, he was on the floor of the corner store. The vinyl tiles cold against his skin. The big, grumpy paramedic was leaning over him, a defibrillator in his hands.

Klaus gasped in a ragged breath, the oxygen like knives as it rushed his lungs.

The grumpy paramedic looked surprisingly relieved to see him conscious. ‘Ok,’ he said, sounding panicked. ‘Don’t panic. Just… don’t stop breathing again.’

Klaus nodded in fervent agreement and then passed out again, his head slapping against the vinyl tiles off the floor.

…

When he woke up again, he was being bundled out of the ambulance. The grumpy paramedic was leaning over him, frowning but looking considerably less frantic. Klaus glanced around, which was hard work. His head felt like it was on fire. There was no one else there. Not even Ben.

'-go?’ Klaus asked, groggily. It hurt to say the name. Even just the half of it he could manage.

‘Diego’s not here,’ the paramedic told him sharply. ‘And you’re fighting a losing battle there, buddy. He’s dating an actress. She’s cute.’

Klaus scowled. He didn’t want to _date _Diego. Not really. Ok, maybe a little. But mostly, he just wanted him _here_. He loved the way Diego smelled of aftershave and not, like most medics, of latex and sweat. He loved the way Diego grinned down at him, like they were just hanging out, while Klaus was being rushed to hospital. And he loved the way Diego always winced when he inserted needles into Klaus’s skin, as if he too could feel the pain.

Most importantly, the man didn’t have any ghosts. And more people had ghosts than you might think. Even Vanya. Her grandmother popped up occasionally. The old lady was sweet, but Klaus could have done without her constant chattering in Russian and her offerings of ghostly, untouchable piroshki.

He didn’t say any of this, of course. Instead he just pouted. ‘_I’m _cute.’

Luther looked down at him and snorted. ‘No you’re not,’ he said, with the blind confidence of a heterosexual man who would never understand the appeal of a twink in lace-up leather pants.

Klaus was passed over to ER staff for the third time in two months, where he slipped back into unconsciousness, letting the darkness claim him.

…

He woke up, hours later, to Diego’s face looming over him. The man was wearing a fierce scowl, eyebrows knitted, mouth set in a tight, straight line.

‘Oh,’ Klaus said weakly, blinking at the man as his eyes adjusted to the bright lights of the hospital room. ‘It’s my favourite paramedic.’

‘What the fuck, Klaus?’ Diego shouted at him, eyes flashing. His hands were gripping Klaus’s shoulders, and he shook him slightly to emphasise his point. ‘You nearly died.’

‘No, no, no,’ Klaus reassured him. ‘No, it’s ok. I can’t die.’

Ben made a doubtful noise behind him.

Diego, oblivious to the other man’s presence, continued to stare at Klaus.

‘Oh my God,’ the man said. He ran his hands through his hair, which was already sticking up in wild, unruly tufts. ‘Oh my God. You’re an idiot. You’re a fucking idiot. Do you think this is a game? Do you think you’re being cute?’

Luther’s voice came flooding back to Klaus. _He’s dating an actress. She’s cute. _

‘Screw you,’ Klaus said, turning his head away. He felt as if every vein in his body was on fire. He blinked rapidly, fighting back a sudden, mortifying onset of tears.

Diego stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him, with a force that sent dust descending from the ceiling tiles. Klaus pressed his face into the pillow and covered his ears with his fists. He didn’t want to hear what Ben had to say.

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops. More angst. Thanks for sticking with me and all this highly dubious medical practice.


	4. Chapter 4

Klaus didn’t have the strength to leave the hospital this time. Every time he tried to stand up, his limbs turned to jelly and he sank back, helpless, onto the bed.

Thankfully, the ghosts were better behaved now. They seemed to have become more accustomed to Klaus’s presence and kept a respectful distance, although there were always one or two hovering, curious, in the doorway.

Klaus befriended a long-dead caretaker called Pogo, who took to standing outside his door, batting away the more unwelcome souls with a broom.

The motherly nurse, Grace, was looking after him again, bringing him jello in between meals in what Klaus suspected was an attempt to fatten him up. The woman had taken one look at his lace-up leather pants and mesh crop top before whisking them away to be laundered.

She had supplied him instead with a pink satin robe to wear over his hospital gown, as well as eyeliner and a tube of clear, shiny lipgloss. Unwell though he felt, he suspected he _looked_ better than he had in years. His freshly washed hair was soft and curling lightly, smelling of Grace’s rose scented shampoo.

On his third day there, Vanya appeared, carrying a banana cream pie. For a second- now so used to the company of ghosts- Klaus panicked, believing she had died. Then it occurred to him he she had used the door, rather than floating through it. He sank back, relieved, into his pillows.

‘How did you know I was here?’ he asked. If he had any shame, he supposed he’d feel a little embarrassed that his favourite waitress was standing over him in his hospital bed. As it was, he was just happy to see her.

‘I hadn’t seen you in a while,’ Vanya said, setting the pie down carefully on the bedside table. She had come straight from work, and smelled slightly of fried food and coffee. ‘So I rang around the hospitals, just in case.’

Klaus blinked at her, flooded with guilt and gratitude. ‘Oh,’ he said, overwhelmed. ‘That’s _nice_.’

Vanya shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. It occurred to Klaus that he might not be the only person feeling lonely. She turned away from him, hiding behind a sheet of dark hair as she rummaged in her backpack. She smiled shyly at him as she sat back up, holding a portable chess set.

‘You play?’ she asked.

Klaus did not. The closest he had ever come to playing a game of chess was the time he had stolen a knight from a giant set in Union Square Park. However, he could see Ben nodding enthusiastically in the corner of his eye.

They passed an hour playing, Vanya growing gradually more amused as Klaus invented new rules with each turn. Ben was a constant nuisance, shouting instructions in Klaus’s ear every few seconds, and getting increasingly irritated when he refused to follow them.

They were interrupted, just as Vanya called _checkmate_, by the door swinging open, and a tired looking Diego appearing in the doorway. The man had a shadow of stubble shading his jaw and dark circles under his eyes. His hair was scruffier than usual and his uniform creased. Klaus’s heart pounded at the sight of him, his body flooding immediately with heat.

  
Diego hesitated when he realised Klaus had company. He was carrying something in his hands, which he hid behind his back, his eyes flicking between the two of them.

Klaus was suddenly painfully grateful for Vanya and her portable chessboard and her banana cream pie for making him look like a respectable human being. The kind of person who someone actually cared for.

The woman took one look between the two men and, sensing the suddenly charged atmosphere, stood up. She gathered up her chess set and stuffed it into her backpack.

Klaus gripped her hand as she went to leave and she leaned in, pressing a kiss to his forehead. Ben remained. He hovered by the bed, eyes flickering between Klaus and Diego as if he were watching a tennis match. Klaus cleared his throat and tipped his head pointedly at the door. Ben rolled his eyes, and floated away, huffing.

‘Don’t put out,’ the man muttered under his breath, disappearing through the wall.

Diego entered the room slowly, looking as if he wasn’t sure he was welcome. Which, Klaus wasn’t yet convinced that he _was_.

‘Hi, Diego,’ Klaus said, as coolly as he could manage while it felt like every nerve in his body had been set suddenly alight.

Diego grinned at the sight of Klaus’s pink satin gown, apparently forgetting he was supposed to be being repentant. His eyes skirted over the open neck to Klaus’s made-up face.

‘Hey, princess.’

Klaus scowled at him, ignoring the way his body responded, enthusiastically, to the endearment.

‘Look,’ Diego stopped smiling. He scuffed his trainers against the squeaky vinyl floor. ‘I overreacted, okay? Luther said your heart stopped. It scared me.’

He approached the bed, withdrawing a brown paper bag from behind his back, and bringing with it the scent of fries. He put it on the bedside table, eyeing the banana cream pie already there.

‘I got you a Happy Meal. Thought you might be getting sick of hospital food.’

‘I like the jello,’ Klaus said, unable to hold back a smile. He grabbed the bag and opened it, sticking his nose in and inhaling enthusiastically before popping a lukewarm fry daintily into his mouth.

Diego settled down on Vanya’s vacated chair by the bed, watching him closely.

Klaus swallowed, and licked the grease from his fingers, painfully aware of the way Diego’s eyes followed his movements. ‘Are you allowed to deliver junk food to the patients?’

‘No,’ Diego shrugged. ‘But the nurses made special allowances for me. I told them you were my brother.’

Klaus choked on his fry. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘I guess that’s one way to stop me flirting with you.’

Diego smirked. ‘So, you gonna forgive me?’

‘Dunno,’ Klaus shrugged, as if he wasn’t head over heels for this softer version of Diego, in his scuffed up trainers and stubble, who brought him Happy Meals and called him _princess. _‘Maybe.’

‘C’mon,’ Diego leaned in so close that Klaus could smell his aftershave, see the thickness of his eyelashes, the slightly chapped skin of his full lips. He placed a hand on Klaus’s arm, fingers rubbing over the silky material of his robe. ‘Let me make it up to you.’

Klaus’s brain immediately assaulted him with several dozen ways in which Diego could make it up to him. He drew his knees up to his chest under the bedsheets, suddenly feeling very exposed.

‘You could take me for a drink,’ he suggested. It was the most daring request he could bring himself to make. ‘I get discharged this afternoon.’

Diego hesitated, drawing back slightly. ‘A… drink?’

Klaus rolled his eyes. ‘I’m an addict, Diego. A glass of wine is _not _going to kill me.’

‘Okay,’ Diego let go of his arm and held his hands up defensively, still very obviously eager to please. It was a good look on him. ‘My shift ends at five. I’ll pick you up.’

… 

Grace arrived back in Klaus’s room at shortly after four pm, just when he was beginning to panic that he’d have to attend his _kind of, almost_ date while still wearing the pink satin robe. She had folded his cropped mesh tshirt into a neat square, and was carrying his leather trousers in a bag from the dry cleaners. Klaus raised an eyebrow. He was pretty sure this wasn’t the standard hospital laundry service. He buried his nose in the fabric of his tshirt. It smelled like fresh rain.

‘You’re good to go when you’re ready,’ she told him cheerfully, handing him a clipboard with a form for him to sign. ‘I’ll leave you to get dressed.’

‘Ummm,’ Klaus called out after her, as she click clacked away on her shiny red heels. ‘Grace?’

‘Yes, honey?’

Klaus blushed. ‘Can I borrow some perfume?’

It took him the full hour to get ready, much to Ben’s chagrin. He faffed with the leather lacing of his pants, drawing it as tight as he could get away with around his legs. His mesh tshirt seemed to have shrunk slightly in the wash, and he spent ten minutes agonising about it in front of the bathroom mirror before deciding it was still flattering.

After all, his washboard stomach had somehow survived the three days of eating junk food and jello. He reapplied his eyeliner with a hand far steadier than usual, and ruffled his hair into an artsy, tousled arrangement. He was dabbing the final touches of lipgloss on to his lips when the door to his room barged open.

‘_Christ on a-’ _Klaus jumped about a foot in the air, hurriedly shoving the tube of lipgloss into his pocket. ‘Can’t you knock?’

Diego didn’t answer. Instead he stood frozen in the doorway, hand still on the doorknob, eyes raking up and down Klaus’s body, his mouth slightly open. He had changed out of his paramedic uniform into a tight pair of jeans and a hoodie. His hair was pushed back from his face, as if he had run gel through it.

He continued to stare at Klaus for several long seconds until someone passed by in the corridor behind him, and the moment broke. He looked away, clearing his throat, and staring determinedly out of the window.

‘You ready?’

‘Don’t I look ready?’ Klaus asked, fishing for a compliment.

The man shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged, still not meeting his eye. ‘This isn’t a date, Klaus. I’m not gonna tell you that you look pretty.’

‘But you’re thinking it,’ Klaus pressed, fully aware that he was pushing his luck. He spoke lightly, playing it off as a joke and exaggeratedly batting his eyelashes.

Ben made a derisive noise from behind Klaus. He was sat in the corner of the room with his nose buried in a book. Klaus had told him he couldn’t come along on the date, and the man was sulking magnificently.

Diego finally cracked a grin. He held the door open. ‘C’mon, princess.’

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As an apology for all the angst, I hope this chapter makes you feel happy and gooey inside!


	5. Chapter 5

Diego rested his hand on Klaus’s lower back as they left the hospital room. His hand was warm against the bare skin there as he guided him into the elevator.

‘You feeling better then?’ he asked, awkwardly, as they emerged into the parking lot.

As soon as they were free of the doors, the man dug a cigarette pack out of his pocket.

‘I’d be better if I had a smoke,’ Klaus said, eyeing the cardboard packet hungrily.

  
Diego handed one over without question, and Klaus placed it immediately between his lips, forcing the man to light it with his hands millimetres from his mouth. When Diego stepped back, he was avoiding Klaus’s eye again. He lit his own and inhaled deeply as they walked.

‘Uh, this is me,’ he said, gesturing at a battered green car a few feet away. ‘You can smoke in the car.’

…

Diego seemed to relax as they drove further away from the hospital. Klaus flicked merrily through the CDs in his glove box until he found a box of condoms buried at the back. _Ribbed for her pleasure. _He squeaked involuntarily, and then glanced at Diego who was squinting at the road and hadn’t noticed his find. Klaus slipped one into his pocket. Just in case.

Diego had good taste in music, he noticed. He flicked back through the selection of boxes, until he found a Queen album and they spent the rest of the drive sat in silence listening to Bohemian Rhapsody. Klaus fingered the condom in his pocket, shooting occasional longing glances at the _very spacious _back seat.

They drew up outside a tiny little bar on the outskirts of town. Klaus squinted dubiously out at it through the car windows. It was an old, wood panelled building with grimy windows and a worn sign swinging in the wind by the front door.

Once inside, it quickly became clear that Diego had brought him to the tamest establishment he could think of. The customers consisted predominantly of old men sipping watery lager and playing cards. There was a group of elderly ladies knitting enthusiastically in the corner.

‘Diegooo,’ Klaus whined. ‘I’m not gonna go off the rails. You don’t need to bring me to the middle of nowhere for a drink.’

Diego shrugged uncomfortably, and it suddenly occurred to Klaus that he was probably being kept hidden. The man had a girlfriend after all, who might be surprised to learn that her lover had taken a half-dressed patient out for drinks. He fell quiet and slunk over to a corner table, preparing himself to sulk.

He cheered up considerably when Diego returned from the bar with a mojito for him, and slid onto the bench next to him, rather than the chair opposite.

He pushed at Klaus’s thighs, encouraging him to move up and create more space. Klaus moved up an inch, and then remained firmly in place, refusing to be shifted any further. Diego sighed and gave up, leaving them with their legs pressed together.

Klaus smirked and took a sip of his drink. He spluttered and spat it straight back out into the glass, disgusted.

‘What the flipper is this?’

‘It’s a mocktail,’ Diego told him, grinning. He took a sip of his coke. ‘_You_ just got out of hospital and _I’m_ a medical professional. Did you really think I was gonna give you alcohol?’

Klaus raised an eyebrow and took a reluctant second mouthful. He swallowed, meeting Diego’s eye. ‘I suppose I’ll just have to take what you give me.’

He fully expected the other man to look away, but the man just fixed him with a steady gaze.

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Yeah, you will.’

Klaus broke the eye contact first, looking around the room for something that would distract him from the crushing desire to throw himself into the man’s lap.

His gaze settled on the group of old ladies in the corner. The clicking of their knitting needles was strangely soothing. They were chattering animatedly amongst themselves, shooting occasional fond glances at the assortment of old men who sat playing cards.

‘Weird place for a knitting group,’ Klaus said, nudging Diego in the ribs and nodding his head at the gathering.

Diego shot him a look of deep confusion. ‘Who’s knitting?’

‘In the corner, you can’t miss th- _oh_,’ Klaus drifted off as one of the elderly ladies levitated out of her seat and floated over to the bar. Her skin was slightly translucent in the brighter light. _Ghosts_.

And now he looked crazy. That’s just great, he thought, glowering at the old ladies and silently cursing them for deciding it was a good idea to set up some kind of a ghostly support group in a public bar. A lady with blue hair noticed him looking and waved at him, beaming.

‘_SO_…’ Klaus began, turning back to Diego. The man was still watching him, a frown on his face. ‘How was work?’

‘Fine,’ Diego said. ‘How was your near-death experience?’

‘You’re very difficult to talk to, Diego,’ Klaus said. ‘Has anyone ever told you that?’

He casually slipped an arm along the back of the bench, his bare skin brushing against the back of the man’s shoulders. He supposed Diego couldn’t feel the contact through the thick material of his hoodie, because he didn’t make any effort to shrug him back off.

‘_You’re_ trouble.’ Diego said. He leaned in and plucked at the transparent mesh fabric of Klaus’s shirt. ‘Has anyone ever told _you_ that?’

Klaus felt suddenly very exposed, with Diego’s eyes raking unapologetically over the bare skin at his midriff, where his sharp hip bones dipped below the low-slung waistband of his leather pants. He gulped, and his reply came out in a slightly strangled voice.

‘I _have_ been told I’m a bad influence.’

‘I bet you are,’ Diego said. He dropped his hand and shifted along the bench, putting a respectable distance between them. ‘Finish your drink. I’ll drop you home.’

Klaus pulled a face, hurriedly trying to think of a suitable address that he could pass of as his _home. _He didn’t think Vanya’s diner was going to cut it.

‘You don’t have one do you?’ Diego said, concern suddenly filling his wide brown eyes.

Klaus hated it. ‘I’m _between addresses_,’ he said, a little more snippily than he’d intended.

They drank in an awkward silence for several minutes, until Diego downed the last of his drink and stood up abruptly. ‘You can crash at mine.’

‘Oh, _my_,’ Klaus raised an eyebrow, and sipped the last dregs of ice from his virgin mojito. He pressed a hand to his chest, mock scandalised. ‘And I thought you were a gentleman.’

‘On the couch,’ Diego clarified. ‘One night only. I reckon that’s long enough for you to drive me crazy.’

‘Yeah,’ Klaus agreed, springing to his feet. ‘_Yeah_, it is.’

Klaus headed towards the car when they left the bar, but Diego pulled him back and pointed him towards a shabby looking apartment building on the other side of the road.

‘_Oh_,’ Klaus said, suddenly feeling very unprepared to be stood outside Diego’s home.

The man’s choice of bar made sense now, and he couldn’t help smiling at the realisation that he wasn’t being hidden after all. He might as well have been invited over for tea and cake with the neighbours.

‘What are you smirking at?’ Diego asked, as he held the door open for him. He gave him a stern glare, which did nothing to temper Klaus’s attraction. ‘You know this doesn’t mean anything right?’

‘Sure, sure,’ Klaus agreed. ‘Just rough, dirty, _meaningless_ sex.’

Diego cuffed him around the head, _hard_, but failed to hide a grin.

‘Yeah,’ Klaus said, letting himself be pushed inside the building. ‘Just like that, baby.’

…

Diego’s apartment was a pleasant surprise. Very _bachelor pad chic, _Klaus thought, surveying the squashy leather couches and battered wood furniture. A stupidly large television took up most of one wall, with endless rows of DVDs stuffed into a shelving unit beneath it.

There was a Men’s Health magazine lying on the coffee table which, Klaus thought, was a little _too_ well thumbed to belong to an entirely straight man. He reached out to pick it up and Diego whipped it out of his hands, shoving it on to the top shelf of a crowded bookcase before disappearing into the kitchen. Klaus raised an eyebrow. Interesting.

He was on his knees examining Diego’s DVD collection when the man returned to the room, carrying two chipped mugs full of steaming hot tea.

‘Still no booze?’ Klaus said, pouting. He strolled over to the kitchen and stuck his head in, eyeing a row of empty beer bottles by the sink.

‘Tea,’ Diego insisted, pressing one of the mugs into his hands. ‘Are you hungry? I have chicken soup.’

‘What _are_ you?’ Klaus asked, in genuine astonishment. ‘Mary Poppins?’

Diego scowled at him and pulled a tupperware container out of the fridge. ‘Well, _I’m_ having soup.’

‘Do you cook then?’ Klaus asked, peering over Diego’s shoulder as the man poured homemade soup into a pan. He clutched his mug a little tighter in his hands, somewhat thrown by the sudden domesticity of the situation.

‘I make soup,’ Diego said. ‘And pasta. And kickass tamales.’

Klaus felt a little faint. He returned to the living room and flung himself on to the couch, where he remained, in a shell-shocked starfish shape until Diego emerged from the kitchen, and set two steaming hot bowls of chicken soup on the coffee table. Klaus stared at him, wondering if it was too soon to declare his everlasting love.

‘Budge up,’ Diego complained, rapping him on the arm with a spoon. ‘You’re hogging my couch.’

They spent a silent ten minutes curled up at opposite ends of the couch, spooning up soup. Diego stared determinedly into his bowl. Klaus stared determinedly at Diego.

‘I notice you have a comprehensive collection of Disney DVDs,’ Klaus said, once they had both finished.

  
The tips of Diego’s ears turned very red. ‘Uh… I guess it’s like a nostalgia thing, y’know?’

‘Absolutely,’ Klaus enthused. He leapt of the couch and landed in a crouch in front of the DVD shelves. ‘Little Mermaid or The Lion King?’

Diego chose The Lion King and Klaus made a face, putting on The Little Mermaid instead. He returned to the couch and sank down in his own corner, before slinging his legs up and resting his feet in Diego’s lap. The man pushed them off immediately.

Klaus patiently waited until they were thirty minutes into the movie before returning them to his lap. Diego ran a hand absentmindedly over the top of his right foot and then began kneading at the underside. His hands were warm and slightly rough, calluses catching blissfully against the smooth skin of Klaus’s bare feet.

‘Oh,’ Klaus groaned and flung his head back. ‘Oh, _yeah_, that’s good.’

The foot massage stopped instantly and he slowly lifted his head to see Diego glaring at him. Klaus mimed zipping his mouth closed and wiggled his toes insistently under the man’s hands.

Diego’s fingers were like _magic_, he realised, biting back moans as the man began to administer the best foot rub he had ever received. Diego stared determinedly at the screen, as his hands rubbed over Klaus’s feet, and then ran up to massage his ankles, dipping with increasing frequency under the hem of his pant legs.

‘Prince Eric is hot,’ Klaus eventually blurted out, in an effort to break the tension.

Diego turned to stare at him, face contorted in confusion. ‘He’s _fictional.’_

‘Well, yeah,’ Klaus said, glad the man was talking to him again. ‘But isn’t that part of the appeal?’

‘Nah’ Diego said, his hand was now halfway up Klaus’s calf, massaging the muscle beneath the leather of his pants, his fingers toying with the lacing. ‘I like someone I can get my hands on.’

‘You wanna, uh, get your hands on _me_?’ Klaus asked carefully.

He gave Diego five seconds to say no, and when he remained silent, he rolled over on the couch, swinging one leg over the man’s thighs and straddling his lap. Diego’s hands landed on his waist, squeezing tightly, dragging him in.

Klaus moaned in satisfaction as he settled his ass on the man’s thighs. He tangled his fingers in the man’s hair and then lurched forwards to catch the man’s lips in a kiss.

Diego’s hands dropped immediately to his ass, kneading with far more enthusiasm than he had shown his feet.

‘Oh, _fuck it_,’ he muttered, as Klaus bit down on his lower lip.

His hands were suddenly on Klaus’s neck, on his jaw, pulling him in tightly as he pressed his tongue into his mouth.

Klaus moaned. He couldn’t remember the last time he had kissed someone sober. He couldn’t remember it _ever_ feeling this good. The intensity was almost too much. His heart was thudding alarmingly fast in his chest and he pressed himself closer to Diego, wanting the other man to feel its violent beat. Diego kissed _filthily, _the man’s tongue practically fucking his mouth.

‘Oh _God,’ _Klaus whimpered against his lips. He ran his hands through the man’s hair and scratched through the short strands at the back of his neck. ‘Oh _God, I love you.’_

_..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I like to end on a cliffhanger...


	6. Chapter 6

‘Oh _God, I love you.’ _

Diego stilled immediately beneath him, lips going suddenly slack.

Klaus fought to keep kissing him, but the man made no response. He brought a hand up to Klaus’s chest and pushed him gently away. The movie had finished in the background, and they were sat in a sudden, deafening silence.

‘In a totally platonic way,’ Klaus clarified, panicking, the reality of what he had just said descending on him like a tonne of bricks. He could feel his cheeks turning very red. ‘Well not _totally_ platonic. But in a _fuck me now_ kind of a way, y’know. Not in a_, I wanna have your babies_ kind of a way.’

Diego remained speechless. Klaus leaned in and began nipping at the skin of his neck.

‘Hey,’ Diego said, voice rough. ‘N-no. C’mon Klaus.’

That groaned _c’mon_ was not enthusiastic. Diego spoke as if Klaus had suddenly started being extremely unreasonable.

Klaus pulled away slowly. He glanced down and thought Diego might be hard beneath the constricting fabric of his jeans, wondered if he’d get away with reaching a hand down to check.

‘I’m trying to look after you here,’ Diego told him, lifting him off him and depositing him further away down the couch.

Klaus thought he might find that a little more believable if the man hadn’t just been tongue-fucking his mouth. He supposed Diego’s excuse had less to do with that, and more to do with the cute actress girlfriend he’d conveniently forgotten to tell Klaus about.

‘Yeah?’ Klaus wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and scowled. Diego had seriously smudged his lipgloss. ‘You invite all your patients over for Disney films? Bring the arthritic old ladies back and give them chicken soup?’

Diego turned a deep shade of crimson that Klaus might have enjoyed under different circumstances. ‘For God’s sake, Klaus. I’m just trying to do the right thing.’

Klaus tried again. Just one more time. He leaned in and nuzzled Diego’s neck, put on his most seductive voice, practically purring against the man’s skin. ‘What if I don’t _want _you to do the right thing?’

‘Not everything is about what you _want_, Klaus.’ Diego stood up, looking breathless and angry.

‘Fine,’ Klaus swallowed, his throat suddenly feeling very thick. There was a horrible churning sensation in his stomach. ‘You don’t want me here? I’m going.’

‘Klaus,’ Diego protested, grabbing his arm as he headed for the door. ‘You don’t need to leave. It’s going dark. You can still stay here.’

‘And sleep on your couch?’ Klaus spat, resisting the urge to slap the man around the face. ‘I’m not a stray dog, Diego. Let me go.’

‘You’re overreacting,’ Diego huffed, letting go and folding his arms across his chest.

‘Overreacting?’ Klaus stormed at him. ‘I broke up with my _boyfriend_ because of you.’

He and Marco hadn’t technically been _together _of course. But it certainly made the event sound more dramatic.

Diego grimaced in confusion. ‘What? Why?’

‘I called out your name during sex,’ Klaus told him, matter of factly, pulling on his shoes.

He looked up to see the man’s eyes had darkened, his lips parted. Diego _liked _that, Klaus realised. Ben had been right. Klaus was just stroking his ego.

Diego reached out to grab at him, looking every inch a man whose last resolve had just cracked. Klaus batted his hands away.

‘_Don’t _call me,’ he said, turning on his heel and striding out of the door. He was halfway down the stairs before he realised, with a painful lurch of his heart, that Diego didn’t actually have his number.

…

Ben was waiting for him on the street outside, hovering cross-legged a few feet above the sidewalk and staring, expressionless, at the door. His eyes lit up when Klaus stormed out of it.

Klaus stamped past him without saying a word.

‘Hey,’ Ben called after him, floating along behind. ‘Wait for me.’

‘I don’t know why you’re here,’ Klaus snapped. ‘I told you not to come.’

‘I got bored,’ Ben said shrugging. ‘And I figured he’d kick you out once you were done.’

‘We weren’t _done_,’ Klaus complained. ‘I called things off.’

Ben snorted. ‘Yeah. Sure you did. After he’d finished right?’

Something in Klaus’s head snapped, and he let out a hiss of anger. There was a low cracking noise, not unlike a thunderclap and then the acrid smell of burning electricity. He turned around to see Ben had disappeared.

‘Interesting,’ he mused. ‘I didn’t know I could do that.’ 

…

Klaus walked for miles that night, without stopping, and without paying any particular attention to where he was going. He stormed through a graveyard without noticing, interrupting a tea party between a congregation of elderly aristocrats, who exclaimed in horror as he trampled straight through them.

He didn’t stop until his feet hurt, which didn’t take as long as he would have liked. He had accidentally put on Diego’s shoes instead of his own and they were rubbing mercilessly against his feet.

Finally drawing to a halt, he looked up, to discover he had arrived, like a homing pigeon, outside Vanya’s diner. The neon sign blinked welcomingly above him, calling him out of the cold. He kicked off Diego’s shoes before heading wearily inside.

He was assailed by the smell of hot coffee, the sound of Bowie on the jukebox and Vanya’s arms being flung around his middle.

He spent the night hunched over his favourite table in the corner, recounting the events of his date in vivid detail for Vanya, whose big eyes grew wider with every word.

‘You said… you _loved _him?’ she asked, shifting a little uncomfortably, and hastily refilling his coffee cup.

‘But,’ Klaus protested, ‘it was just the heat of the moment.’

And the chicken soup, and the way Diego looked in his soft, baggy hoodie, and his soppy DVD collection, and the way his hands felt against Klaus’s skin.

Vanya hesitated, suddenly very interested in the stained table-top. ‘Huh,’ she said. ‘But… _do _you love him?’

‘Oh fuck,’ Klaus buried his head in his hands. ‘I _love _him.’

Vanya pulled a face at him, as if she thought he had made a very poor choice in falling for Diego. Klaus couldn’t bring himself to agree, but appreciated the sentiment.

‘Hm,’ she said. ‘That’s unlucky. So what are you going to do now?’

Klaus shrugged. He had driven away his two favourite people in the world in the very same night. It hurt. He hadn’t thought much further ahead than drowning his sorrows in blueberry pancakes and hot cocoa.

Vanya pointed at a sign in the window. ‘Do you need a job?’

Klaus was briefly swept up in the fantasy of spending long days in the warmth of the diner; drinking endless cups of free coffee; serving steaming plates of fried food; wearing one of those _adorable _little aprons. He shook his head.

‘I can’t get a job, Vanya.’

Klaus knew this from experience. He had lost count of the number of places he had approached over the years: dingy record stores, coffee shops, strip clubs, even a strange little umbrella shop on the edge of town.

He had never lasted longer than a week, before someone cottoned on to his _lack of lodgings_ and he was kicked back out with only a few dozen dollars to show for his effort. It was a fucked up Catch 22 situation, with no logical way out. He couldn’t get a job without a home. And he couldn’t get a home without a job.

Vanya hesitated, wringing her hands in her apron. ‘You could live with me.’

‘Oh,’ Klaus hesitated, feeling the same sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that he got if someone tried to offer him a dollar in the street. ‘No, no, I can’t do that.’

‘Wait,’ Vanya said, shaking her head rapidly. ‘No, you don’t understand. I need a flatmate. We’d split the rent. If you were working here you could afford it. I could speak to Agnes, put in a good word for you.’

‘I can’t let you do that for me,’ Klaus said slowly. He pushed the last of the pancakes around his plate, desperately trying to silence the voice in his head that was screaming at him to accept. To add insult to injury, Ben reappeared at that moment too, adding to the cacophony.

‘Do it,’ he hissed in Klaus’s ear.

Klaus shot him a filthy look.

‘I’d say sorry,’ Ben muttered, looking repentant for once. ‘But you just booted me into the darkest depths of the afterlife. I think we’re even.’

‘You’d be doing me a favour,’ Vanya continued, talking very quickly, her cheeks pink. ‘My landlord’s just put the rent up. It’s only a one bedroom flat, but you could have the living room, and half the walk-in closet, and I could draw up a bathroom rota and-’

‘Wait,’ Klaus held a hand up, silencing her. ‘There’s… a walk-in closet?’

Vanya nodded. ‘Yeah, I barely use it. You can have _three quarters_. C’mon Klaus. It’d be perfect.’

Klaus’s last resolve snapped. For the first time since leaving Diego’s apartment, he felt warm and comfortable and safe, in a way he didn’t think could be put entirely down to the pancakes.

He broke into a grin as he met Vanya’s eye. ‘When can I move in?’

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're not even half way yet! This is the longest thing I've ever written :')
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me!


	7. Chapter 7

Klaus moved in with Vanya a week later, refusing to fully accept her offer until he was certain he had the job. Agnes had signed off his contract at the diner as soon as she had seen him in the pink apron, clapping her hands together and cooing like an overexcited pigeon.

Vanya’s apartment was bland in a way that the woman herself absolutely was not. It had white walls and drab furnishings and a cavernous, half-empty living room. Klaus took one look around the space and set about fixing it, painting the walls in the living room black, and festooning them with fairy lights.

Vanya had bought a dividing screen for the room to give Klaus his own space and he managed to squeeze a king size mattress in beneath the windows, where he was woken each day by the early morning sun hitting his face. They found a blue velvet couch in a skip, with only minimal cigarette burns, and bought a giant Persian rug for ten dollars at the thrift store.

In his eagerness to show his gratitude, Klaus had spent his first week in Vanya’s flat cooking her dinner, until he set off the fire alarm for the third time and she literally begged him to stop. They got a lot of takeaways after that, and spent too many evenings a week drinking cheap red wine on the couch. Klaus managed to stay, _mostly_, off the drugs, restricting his overdoses to weed, sugar and caffeine.

Ben had befriended Vanya’s Russian grandmother, and the two of them spent hours together, playing chess and discussing ghostly goings-on that Klaus had no interest in. Together, the two of them did a good job of keeping other ghosts away. Nana Vanya was surprisingly lively, and not above imposing damage with her knitting needles.

Klaus spent a third of his first paycheck on rent and, with the rest, he went shopping. He bought skinny jeans, floaty scarves, leather skirts, tiny shorts, crop tops, sparkly shirts, ruffled blouses, three different types of eyeliner and a vast assortment of brightly coloured lingerie.

‘Uh, Klaus,’ Vanya said, as he gleefully emptied his shopping bags onto the living room floor. She picked up a pleather crop top from the pile, eyeing it in confusion. ‘You’re not supposed to spend it all at once.’

Klaus ran his hands over the clothes, wide-eyed and painfully happy as he relished the sensation of the fabrics beneath his skin. ‘I have three-quarters of a walk-in closet to fill,’ he reminded her.

Working at the diner was not quite as glamorous as he had imagined. He spent most of his time scrubbing pots, with suds up to his elbows, or wrestling with the coffee machine behind the counter. He made the worst coffee imaginable, but customers seemed to like him all the same. In his leather pants and pink apron he was raking in tips, as well as the occasional phone number.

Vanya spent most evenings hassling him to call one of them, but Klaus brushed her off, still hung up on Diego. He had never been quite so caught up in one person before. He liked men. He liked sex. He sometimes felt like his mind was one of those flashy neon signs on a dark side street screaming _boys, boys, boys. _

But thinking about Diego felt different. He lay awake most nights staring at Vanya’s ceiling (he still couldn’t think of it as his own) and wishing he had said something, _anything, _other than _I love you. _

In his head, he was beginning to plot ways to see him again. He had even begun befriending the elderly customers at work in guilt struck hope that one of them might need a hospital visitor one day.

As it turned out, he needn’t have worked so hard.

On a sunny Wednesday, five weeks into the new job he turned around to the blaring of sirens, just in time to see an ambulance screech to a halt outside the doors. Out jumped Diego and Luther, and Klaus barely had time to duck down beneath the counter before the two men were striding into the diner, arguing loudly.

‘Fucking hell, Diego,’ Luther was saying. ‘I keep telling you, you can’t just turn the sirens on every time you want a cup of coffee.’

‘Why not?’ Diego said, and Klaus felt his heart flip over in his chest at the sound of the man’s voice, gruffer than he remembered, but still rich with amusement. ‘It’s an emergency.’

At that moment, Vanya appeared from the kitchen. She stopped in her tracks at the sight of Klaus hiding behind the counter, and then looked up, mouth dropping comically open at the sight of Diego stood on the other side of it.

The man didn’t appear to recognise her. ‘Hey, uh, two Americanos to go please?’

‘Sure,’ Vanya said slowly, eyes falling back to Klaus.

Klaus shook his head rapidly, heart still thudding in his chest. He pressed a finger to his lips, watching her with wide, beseeching eyes.

‘_Klaus_,’ Vanya said. ‘Can you get this one?’

She didn’t hang around to see his angry gesturing, turning hurriedly away and disappearing back into the kitchen. Klaus stood up reluctantly, cheeks flaming. His hand collided with a coffee cup on the counter as he moved, sending it flying to the floor where it broke with a crash.

‘_Klaus_?’

Diego was staring at him with a level of disbelief that Klaus would have found offensive if he wasn’t fully aware of how much better he looked now than the last time they had met.

He had gained a couple of much needed pounds, and his hair had grown out into loose, soft curls. He even had some colour in his cheeks, that wasn’t entirely down to makeup.

The man’s eyes ran over his little pink apron. ‘You, uh… you look good.’

‘I know,’ Klaus said, torn between keeping his distance and drinking in the sight of Diego in his uniform with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to the elbows.

Luther looked between them, and rolled his eyes. ‘I’ll wait outside.’

‘So,’ Diego was still staring. He leaned forward over the counter as his eyes travelled down Klaus’s bare legs. It was a warm day and he’d chosen to wear his denim hotpants, the shortest Agnes would let him get away with. ‘You work here now?’

‘No,’ Klaus said, not moving. ‘I just like the frilly apron.’

Diego, irritatingly, looked for a second as if he believed him. His eyebrows furrowed as his gaze lingered on the garment in question.

‘Yes,’ Klaus sighed, ‘I work here.’

‘It suits you,’ Diego said.

Klaus didn’t know if he meant the job or the apron. His mind had gone painfully, embarrassingly empty. He hovered for a second, caught in the intensity of Diego’s gaze, before hurriedly turning his back and beginning to stab at the buttons of the coffee machine. He eventually managed to produce two cups full of lukewarm, dirty-brown water, and shoved lids on them before Diego could complain.

When he turned around again, Diego was writing something on a napkin.

‘That’s company property,’ Klaus said sniffily, setting the two paper cups down on the counter.

Diego raised his eyebrows, meeting his gaze. ‘It’s a napkin, Klaus.’

The man folded it into a neat square and then reached over and slipped it into the pocket of his apron, fingers lingering on the fabric.

‘That’s my number,’ the man said. ‘The one that isn’t 911.’

Klaus stuck his tongue out before he could stop himself.

Diego grinned, and leaned even further over the counter, tilting his head to one side and looking Klaus up and down. ‘I’d like it if you called me.’

Klaus backed away. ‘Why?’

‘Christ,’ Diego grumbled, standing up straight, a blush beginning to creep up his neck. ‘You’re not making this easy. Because I want to take you on a date, Klaus. A proper date. Maybe buy you a real drink this time.’

They were interrupted by the sound of Luther leaning on the ambulance horn.

Diego cursed under his breath and then picked up the two cups, striding off across the diner. He hesitated at the door, turning back to look at Klaus.

‘I missed you,’ he said. Then he ducked out of the door, and climbed into the ambulance, whisked away in a blur of sirens and blue flashing lights.

Which just wasn’t fair, as far as Klaus was concerned. He prided himself on knowing how to make an exit. But he couldn’t compete with that. Although the time he had stolen an ice-cream van to escape an ex probably did come close.

‘You didn’t tell me he likes you back,’ Vanya said accusingly, emerging from the kitchen.

‘He doesn’t,’ Klaus protested, withdrawing the napkin from his pocket and turning it over in confusion. He ran his fingers over the indents of the numbers, scrawled in blue biro, and then over the kiss etched beneath them.

Vanya snorted in a very unladylike manner. ‘Klaus,’ she said. ‘The man was practically drooling.’

‘He’s just toying with me,’ Klaus told her. It felt too dangerous to believe her.

Vanya clucked her tongue in disbelief. ‘_Call_ him.’

…

Klaus managed to hold out a whole twenty four hours before calling Diego. When he finally caved in and picked up the phone, Vanya was sat across from him at the kitchen table, with Ben floating unseen at her side. The three of them were all clutching full cups of coffee and staring at the phone as if it might bite.

Klaus nearly dropped the phone when Diego answered. The man’s voice sounded distant and uninterested, his words sharp and clipped.

‘Hello? Who’s this?’

‘Well, now I wish I _had _phoned 911,’ Klaus said, dryly. ‘They’re much friendlier.’

He heard a scrambling noise at the other end of the line, the sound of something being knocked over, and then Diego’s voice, suddenly louder, much clearer and several degrees warmer.

‘Hi, Klaus.’

‘Hey Diego,’ Klaus murmured. He twisted the cord of the telephone around his fingers, and closed his eyes so as to better hear the other man’s voice.

There followed a short silence that seemed to stretch into eternity.

‘You make terrible coffee,’ Diego blurted out.

Klaus pulled the phone away from his ear in order to stare at it incredulously. ‘Bold of you to say so when you want me to go on a date with you.’

‘Dunno,’ Diego said, and Klaus could _hear _him grinning on the other side of the phone. ‘Maybe the coffee was a dealbreaker.’

‘Maybe you _sassing _me is a dealbreaker,’ Klaus said.

‘Huh,’ Diego hesitated for a beat. And then, sounding genuinely concerned, asked, ‘_is_ it?’

‘Oh, no,’ Klaus said hurriedly. ‘Not at all. I like you being sassy. I like it a little, I mean. Not too much. I like it a normal, sensible, time-appropriate amount.’

‘So you love it,’ Diego said, in his _I’m grinning _voice again.

Klaus thought it was a little soon for that particular joke. ‘Are you going to ask me out or not? Because I bought new lingerie and I’d hate for it to go to waste.’

At the other side of the table, Vanya and Ben buried their heads in their hands in perfect synchronisation. Klaus shrugged at them.

‘Uh, ye-yeah, I mean… yes. Yes I can do y- do _that_. Ask you out, I mean. Um.’ There was a pause. ‘Is tomorrow too soon?’

Klaus shot Vanya and Ben a victorious look.

‘Tomorrow is perfect’

…

Klaus couldn’t remember the last time he’d been on a real date. The kind of date that required him to get dressed up, rather than just… undressed_. _As a result, he spent several hours on the floor of the walk-in closet agonising over what to wear.

‘Should I even be going?’ Klaus asked, having finally chosen his outfit; a knee-length leather skirt and black velvet bolero jacket. He assessed the combination critically in the mirror.

‘I’m an asexual ghost boy,’ Ben shrugged, not looking up from his book. ‘Ask someone else.’

Klaus frowned at him. The other man had been perfectly happy to weigh in up until this point. He suspected he’d just reached an engrossing bit in his book.

‘It’s just… if he doesn’t want me at my worst, he doesn’t deserve me at my best, right?’

‘Klaus,’ Ben said, giving him a scathing look. ‘You’re _always_ at your worst.’

Klaus pointed a finger at him. ‘Don’t forget I can zap you back into non-existence nowadays.’

Ben rolled his eyes. ‘You’re not Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Klaus.’ 

‘No,’ Klaus agreed, turning around again to admire himself in the mirror, rubbing a smudge of eyeliner from his cheek. ‘I always thought my vibe was more _Mona the Vampire_.’

…

Vanya stuck her head into the closet at the sound of the doorbell. She looked Klaus up and down, critically.

‘You like?’ Klaus asked. He performed an elegant 360 degree pirouette.

‘It’s… nice,’ Vanya said. ‘What shirt are you wearing?’

Klaus looked down at his bare chest, half revealed by the open bolero jacket. ‘You think I need a shirt?’

‘He’s saving Diego the trouble of undressing him,’ Ben chipped in. The man had developed a habit of contributing to their conversations, addressing his words to Vanya, even though she remained blissfully unaware of his existence.

‘Shut up, ghost boy,’ Klaus hissed from the corner of his mouth.

The doorbell rang again, and Vanya raised her eyebrows as Klaus remained glued to the stop, unable to move. His legs seemed to have turned to jelly.

‘Shall I get it?’ she offered.

Klaus nodded, mutely.

…

It took a good five minutes, and a serious amount of deep breathing, before he felt ready to leave the walk-in closet.

He emerged into the living room to find Vanya talking to Diego in hushed tones, a dangerous glint in her eye that Klaus had never seen before. Nana Vanya was hovering over her shoulder, nodding approvingly and making the occasional threatening hand gesture. Klaus cleared his throat.

Diego whipped his head around so quickly, Klaus was surprised he didn’t give himself whiplash. The man was dressed in a very tight pair of black jeans and a shirt in a rich shade of aubergine. He had left several buttons strategically open at the collar, revealing a deep triangle of golden brown skin.

His mouth fell gratifyingly open at the sight of Klaus, who immediately panicked and performed another curtsy. The man’s eyes dragged down his bare chest and flicked over the length of his legs, freshly shaven and moisturised and ending in chunky black combat boots.

Vanya cleared her throat pointedly, and Diego immediately stopped staring at Klaus and began examining the ceiling.

‘You ready?’ the man asked, obviously trying to fight back a grin.

Klaus beamed at him. ‘Don’t I look ready?’

‘Yeah,’ Diego winked at him, recovering some of his usual bravado. ‘You look pretty.’

Vanya had barely closed the door behind them when Diego turned to him, lifting a hand to cup Klaus’s jaw and stepping in close.

‘Nuh-uh,’ Klaus said, turning his head away, ignoring the pounding of blood in his veins, the thrum of arousal under his skin. He hadn’t forgotten how their last kiss had ended, or just how much it had hurt. ‘I’m pretty sure you get that at the _end_ of the date.’

‘Do I?’ Diego pulled away with satisfying reluctance. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’

He reached out and squeezed Klaus’s hand, and didn’t let go of it until they reached the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...
> 
> Will they? Won't they?


	8. Chapter 8

If Klaus had to choose the place he would die, he was pretty sure Diego’s car wouldn’t be far down the list. It was warm and safe and comfortable and it smelled of Diego.

He inhaled deeply as he slid into the passenger side, the door held open for him by the other man. Settling back into the bruised leather seat he relished the scent of smoke, coffee and aftershave. He trailed his fingers along the handle of the glove box, remembering the box of condoms he’d stumbled across last time he had been in the car.

‘You can choose the music,’ Diego told him, misinterpreting his interest. He leaned over and cracked open the glove box, revealing a selection of CDs, half out of their cases.

Klaus rummaged through immediately, hesitating as he pulled aside the last few cases and found the space at the back was empty. He chewed on his fingernails, surveying the empty space, unable to stop himself wondering if Diego had actually used the condoms or simply moved them to a more appropriate location.

He decided he didn’t want to know and selected a Pink Floyd album, slipping the CD into the player where it buzzed and clicked for several long seconds before finally beginning to play, half way through _Wish You Were Here. _Klaus leaned back in his seat and looked out of the window, watching the lights flash by in the darkening night.

‘So, you’re living at Vanya’s place now?’ Diego asked.

‘_Our_ place,’ Klaus corrected, though the words still felt foreign in his mouth. ‘We’re flatmates. Half and half. But I get three quarters of the walk-in closet.’

Diego grinned, tearing his eyes away from the road in order to glance at Klaus’s outfit. ‘Of course you do. So it’s just the two of you, then?’

A tiny part of Klaus wondered for a second if Diego was jealous, but he shook the thought away, thinking it impossible.

‘Just us.’ He hesitated, thinking of Ben. ‘And the odd friend now and again. Oh, and Vanya’s grandmother pops by from time to time. She makes incredible piroshki.’

They spent the rest of the drive in silence, stealing occasional glances at each other and looking away, smirking, when their eyes met. Diego pulled up on a dark street in a quiet corner of town, cutting the engine and plunging them into silence.

Klaus stared out of the window in alarm. They had stopped beside a cemetery, separated from the road only by a black iron railing. The hulking shapes of gravestones stood out as silhouettes against the fading grey light, shrouded in mist and _surrounded_ by ghosts.

‘Diego,’ he said, gripping the sides of his seat. ‘This is a graveyard.’

‘Yes, Klaus.’ Diego looked amused. ‘But I’m not taking you in there. We’re going to the restaurant over the road.’

He pointed at a strip of bars and restaurants across the street. The buildings were all small and cramped, but their windows were lit with a warm glow and the sounds of chatter and laughter spilled out onto the street. Klaus’s gaze fell on the restaurant Diego had chosen.

It was a tiny pizza parlour with wide windows, a faded sign and a bright red door. A string of fairy lights had been draped outside, presumably in an attempt to create a welcoming atmosphere. This was undermined by the large crowd of ghosts sat around a table in the window.

As Klaus looked on, one of the ghosts turned to look at him, revealing a bloody, shredded face and an empty, sunken eye socket. Fixed in the man’s icy, one-eyed gaze, Klaus felt his heart drop in his chest, his skin suddenly wracked with shivers as he broke out in a cold sweat.

‘No,’ he said, a little shrilly. ‘_No_. Keep driving. ‘

Diego obediently turned the engine back on, but paused to stare in confusion at the empty table Klaus was fixated upon.

‘GO,’ Klaus snapped, his foot hitting the floor of the car in a futile attempt to find an accelerator.

The man set off in a shriek of wheel spin, racing away down the road and around the corner. He shot Klaus a concerned glance, but kept driving, winding down streets until they were in the centre of town, slowed by pedestrians and mercifully lit by bright, fluorescent lights.

‘You alright there, kiddo?’

‘Oh, yes,’ Klaus nodded, avoiding his eye. After all, Diego had gone to all the trouble of choosing a relaxing, romantic venue for their first date. It would be rude to tell him it was haunted. ‘I just really hate pizza.’

Diego’s eyes narrowed in disbelief. ‘You’re sweating.’

‘And you didn’t even have to work for it,’ Klaus joked, weakly.

‘I thought you were off the drugs,’ Diego said, frowning. He was staring at his own hands, which maintained a tight grip on the steering wheel, even though they’d pulled up by the side of the road.

‘I _am,’ _Klaus protested. ‘Drug-free. Clean as a whistle. Fresh as a daisy.’

‘But you’re seeing things.’

‘I’m not seeing things.’ Klaus huffed. ‘Well I am. But only because they’re _there. _And you’d be sweating too if you could see them.’

Diego made a thoughtful humming noise, scanning him from head to toe with a practiced, assessing eye.

Klaus rolled his eyes, fighting to hide the burning disappointment that was beginning to consume him. ‘What’s your diagnosis, doc?’

‘You’re nuts,’ Diego told him, seriously. He reached over and grasped Klaus’s hand, squeezing it tightly. ‘Now should we get on with the date?’

…

They ended up at a drive-through, despite Diego’s protests. Klaus didn’t want to leave the warmth and the comfort of the man’s car. The interior was so utterly _Diego, _from the battered leather of the seats to the lingering smell of aftershave. Kicking back in the passenger seat, with his feet up on the dashboard, Klaus could imagine he was really a part of Diego’s life.

‘If you’re gonna put your feet on the dash,’ Diego said, as they waited in line for their food. ‘At least take your shoes off.’

Klaus shot him a coy look. ‘Are you asking me to get undressed already?’

‘Nope,’ Diego shrugged. ‘I’m asking you to stop getting mud on the dashboard. But if you wanna get undressed while you’re at it, that’s fine by me.’

Not really having an answer for that, Klaus obediently unlaced his boots, hyper-aware of the way Diego’s eyes lingered on his legs while he did so.

The moment was rudely interrupted by the hooting of a car’s horn behind them. They looked up to see the cars in front had moved away, and they were now holding up the queue.

‘Distracted, Diego?’ Klaus asked, as the man cursed and fumbled for the gearstick.

Klaus directed Diego to a viewing point he knew, where they could look out over the city, spreading away below them. It was entirely dark now, and the city lights sparkled red and gold in the night. They divided up their food and Klaus dipped his fries into his strawberry milkshake, staring out at the view in an effort not to stare at the man next to him.

‘I don’t know why I bothered planning a date,’ Diego said, looking torn between being grumpy and amused.

‘I used to come here to get frisky in high school,’ Klaus said, nostalgically, looking around the deserted parking bay. He supposed the kids of today were all sat at home, tapping away on touchscreens.

‘Oh yeah?’ Diego paused, a fry half way to his open mouth. His eyes flickered down to the inch of bare thigh on display beneath the cut of Klaus’s skirt. ‘Is that why you brought me here?’

‘Technically,’ Klaus mused, ‘_you_ brought _me_. So I’ll take no responsibility for what happens next.’

Diego crumpled up his burger wrapper and tossed it into the back seat, his eyes not leaving Klaus’s face as he licked the grease from his fingers. He reached out for Klaus, who set his milkshake down carefully in the cup holder. His eyes fluttered closed as Diego’s hand slid up his neck, drawing him in.

The first kiss was tentative, a breathless brush of lips, before Diego let go. The man caught his gaze, and then reached up to tangle both hands in his hair. Klaus moaned as Diego tugged slightly on his curls, pulling him in for a harder kiss. The man made a guttural sound against his mouth, and his tongue swiped across Klaus’s lower lip.

‘C’mere,’ the man muttered against his mouth, one hand fisting in the material of his jacket, pulling him halfway into the driver’s seat. ‘C’mere, Klaus.’

Klaus swung one leg over and, in a desperately inelegant manoeuvre, squeezed himself on top of the man, nearly crushing him in an attempt to fit in between his chest and the steering wheel. He sank down onto Diego’s lap and rolled his hips purposefully. Diego grunted in satisfaction and his hands disappeared beneath Klaus’s jacket, coming around to encircle him while he ran his hands up and down the bare skin of his back.

In the cramped space, Klaus had to arch his back in order to pull back far enough to catch Diego’s mouth in his own. He kissed him until his muscles were screaming in protest, and then sank back into him, lavishing his attention on the man’s neck instead.

Diego’s hands had dropped to his thighs and were grappling at the hem of his skirt, struggling to push up the heavy, sticky leather with Klaus still seated in his lap. He managed to get it up several inches all the same. His hands dipped beneath, squeezing at the flesh of his thighs.

Klaus bit down into the man’s neck, high enough for it to show above his collar, and then began to suck. He worked his tongue over the skin in a desperate effort to mark him, to leave some evidence on his skin, to prove that for a time, no matter how short, he had belonged to Klaus. He breathed in the scent of his skin, the now familiar spice of his aftershave mingling with the salty tang of sweat.

Beneath him, Diego had begun bucking up repeatedly, his hard-on pushing up against Klaus’s ass, prominent despite the layers of leather and denim between them. Klaus pressed himself up on his knees, lifting his hips teasingly away.

Diego took the opportunity to shove his skirt up above his hips, and then groaned at the sight of what he was wearing underneath. His hands landed on Klaus’s ass, fingers pushing up compulsively to lift the layered ruffles of his panties, and then feel them fall back over his hands. The man was breathing heavily now. His eyes were dark when Klaus pulled back slightly to meet them. His hands gripped tighter, as he attempted to pull Klaus back down into his lap.

Klaus was panicking. He was eyeing the purple mark he had left on Diego’s neck, visible even in the grey half-light. His mind was back on Diego’s girlfriend. The surge of satisfaction he felt at the thought of her seeing the mark, faded into insignificance beneath the crushing weight of his own jealousy. He wanted, in that moment more than anything, to have Diego to himself.

He pulled his hips back, accidentally hitting the horn as he did so. The loud screech ripped apart the silence of the night, and Diego paused for long enough for Klaus to regain his breath and speak.

‘We should stop,’ he said, breathing heavily. He avoided the man’s eye.

Diego’s hands stilled on his ass. There was a heavy silence.

‘Did I, uh, do something wrong?’ the man asked, slowly.

‘No,’ Klaus protested, meeting his gaze at last. ‘God, no. It’s just. I can’t. Diego, _your girlfriend_.’

‘My… my _girlfriend?’ _Diego looked stunned. ‘W-what?’

‘The actress’ Klaus said, thoroughly wishing he hadn’t brought the subject up and Diego’s hands were still on his ass and not trailing, forgotten, down his thighs. ‘I know about her.’

‘Actress? You mean Allison?’ Diego pulled a face akin to revulsion. ‘She’s just a friend_.’ _

Klaus swung off him and sank heavily down into the passenger seat, crushed beneath the force of a wave of pure relief washing over him. Diego was continuing to look at him as if he’d just set fire to the car they were sat in.

‘I’m _gay, _Klaus.’ His eyes flickered down to Klaus’s skirt, which was still bunched up high around his thighs. ‘I kinda thought you knew that.’

‘But…’ Klaus could feel his cheeks turning very pink. ‘Luther said you were dating an actress.’

Diego frowned. ‘Really? I always thought Luther liked Al-‘ he trailed off, eyes lighting up in sudden realisation. ‘Oh, shit.’ He stabbed the air excitedly in a moment of sudden realisation. ‘_That’s_ why he hates me.’

He trailed off and they sat in silence for several minutes.

‘I’ve killed the mood, haven’t I?’ Klaus said.

Diego snorted. ‘You really did. _Allison_? Christ.’ He hesitated. ‘So- hang on a minute- all this time, you thought I had a girlfriend?’

‘Mm-hm.’

‘And you just… kept going anyway?’ Diego’s mouth was twitching, as if he was trying very hard not to laugh. His eyes fell back down to Klaus’s skirt again.

Klaus shrugged, straightening his clothing. ‘All’s fair in love and war.’

Diego’s eyebrows shot up, nearly disappearing beneath his hairline.

‘In _like _and war,’ Klaus corrected, hurriedly, his cheeks flushing scarlet. ‘I mean in _like _and war. Ok? Good. Well now we’re all on the same page.’ He grappled for the car door handle, mortified. ‘Shall we continue this at some other time?’

‘Um, ok,’ Diego watched him struggling with the door for a few seconds before reaching across him and lifting his hand gently away. ‘I’m driving you home.’

They spent the ride back to Klaus’s apartment in silence. When Diego cut the engine, he twisted to face Klaus and pulled him in for another kiss, awkward this time across the gap between the seats. ‘Should I call you?’

Klaus squeaked against his mouth, before wriggling away out of the door.

‘If you want. I mean you don’t _have to_. I’m not overly invested. I mean I am a _little_ invested. But only a healthy, totally _average_ amount of invested.’

Diego wound the window down, as Klaus hurried away across the street, desperate to reach the safety of his front door.

‘Oi,’ the man shouted after him.

Klaus turned slowly to face him.

Diego smirked at him, half leaning out of the window. He looked impossibly handsome through the mist, face illuminated by the orange glow of the streetlamp. ‘I’ll call you.’

…

‘Are you okay?’ Vanya asked, when Klaus came barrelling through the front door.

He slammed it behind him, and fell back to lean, breathless and closed-eyed, upon it.

‘Oh God,’ Klaus said. He flapped his hands in the air as he tried desperately to catch his breath. He felt as though there was a vice fastened around his chest. He clasped his hands over his heart. ‘I… I think I-’

‘Love him,’ Ben and Vanya finished for him in weary unison.

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this all went a bit rom-com, eh? Thanks for sticking with me. I hope you don’t mind the change of pace.


	9. Chapter 9

Klaus spent the next three days waiting for Diego to call. He worked every evening at the diner, getting orders wrong, over-powdering the doughnuts and making yet more of his signature _terrible _coffee. His interest in drugs was waning as he spent every waking second thinking about the other man. It was downright unhealthy, he was aware. It occurred to him that he might have replaced one addiction with another.

‘I have an addictive personality,’ he explained to Vanya, on the third day of waiting. He was stress-eating a doughnut in the diner’s storeroom, powdered sugar dusting his chin. ‘It’s a real thing. When I get a taste of something good, I just _need _more.’

Vanya focused steadfastly on her clipboard as she ran through the date checking. ‘I don’t know if you’re talking about Diego, or the doughnut.’

Klaus regarded the doughnut sadly before cramming the last chunk into his mouth. ‘Both.’

‘He’ll call tonight,’ Vanya said, calmly. ‘He’s waiting three days.’

Klaus stared at her in astonishment. He wiped the back of his hand against his mouth and it came away covered in sugar. ‘How do you know?’

‘Because men are idiots,’ Vanya said. ‘And they think they have to wait three days before they call. He probably read it in Men’s Health or something.’

‘But why would he _do_ that?’ Klaus asked, genuinely baffled. He didn’t think he’d ever waited three days for anything he wanted.

Vanya shrugged. ‘Don’t ask me. Girls don’t do it. We just call each other straight away.’

‘Hm,’ Klaus mumbled, sucking the remains of the sugar from his fingers. ‘Maybe I’ll become a lesbian. Like that guy in The L Word.’

‘Sounds good,’ Vanya agreed. She handed him the clipboard. ‘But can you finish the date checking first?’

…

Vanya, as usual, was right. Diego rang that evening.

Vanya was working a double shift at the diner and Klaus was in the living room when the phone rang. Nana Vanya and Ben were engaged in a deadly serious game of chess in the corner of the room, shooting him the occasional pitying look between moves.

Klaus was ignoring them. He had bought a silver sequinned beanbag with the last of his paycheck, and was curled up on it, wearing a facemask and drowning his sorrows in a glass of rosé. Next month, he was thinking (in an effort to cheer himself up) he would buy a lava lamp.

‘Hey, baby,’ Diego said, when he answered the phone.

‘Oh.’ Klaus said. ‘Hi.’

The way Diego’s voice made his heart race, did nothing to improve Klaus’s mood. They made it through less than a minute of stilted conversation before Diego called him out on his grumpiness.

‘Are you pissed at me?’ he asked.

‘No,’ Klaus said stubbornly.

‘Okay,’ Diego said, drawing out the vowels, and sounding entirely as though he didn’t believe him. ‘You sound kinda tense. Anything I can help you with?’

‘_Fine_,’ Klaus snapped. ‘I’m pissed at you. You said you’d call.’

‘I – uh – _am _calling, Klaus.’

‘Three days later,’ Klaus said.

‘Three days,’ Diego agreed, his voice soft. ‘That’s the standard. So it’s not too obvious I wanna get in your pants. Or skirt. I dunno what you’re wearing. What _are _you wearing?’

Klaus giggled reluctantly, curling back down in his beanbag. ‘Not much. Very short shorts.’

Ben and Nana Vanya looked up in unison, matching expressions of disapproval on their faces.

‘Huh,’ Diego said. ‘I didn’t think you’d answer that. Top?’

‘No,’ Klaus said, beginning to cheer up. ‘You can top.’

Diego made a slightly tortured noise down the phone. ‘Now seems like a good time to ask you out again?’

‘Um,’ Klaus hesitated, shooting a wary look at Ben, who was still frowning at him. He lowered his voice. ‘Maybe you could just come over?’

‘Yes.’ Diego said, satisfyingly quickly. ‘Yeah, I can do that. You on your own?’

‘Yeah,’ Klaus glanced over at Nana Vanya and Ben, who stared unnervingly back at him. He made a shooing motion with his hands. ‘I will be.’

‘Great.’

Klaus thought he could detect a touch of nerves in Diego’s voice, which helped quell his own racing heart. He could hear the sounds of scuffled, hurried movements on the other end of the line. Then, bizarrely, the sound of sirens before Diego spoke again, half shouting over the noise.

‘I’ll be there in ten minutes.’

It took a good five minutes for Klaus to convince Ben and Nana Vanya to leave the apartment. When they finally parted, floating in grumpy unison through the wall, Klaus hurriedly made his bed, hid his unicorn plushie and then dived into the shower.

He had only just turned off the water when the doorbell rang. He hurriedly scrubbed a towel through his hair. Hesitating, he glanced at his clothes on the tiled floor, before grabbing another towel. He answered the door with it wrapped tightly around his chest, wearing it like a dress. His hair was still damp and curling.

‘Oh, wow,’ Diego muttered when he caught sight of him, his eyes raking up and down Klaus’s towel-wrapped body. ‘You’re already naked. I like that.’

Klaus barely heard him. Diego’s hair was seriously scruffy, and there was a shadow of stubble darkening his jaw. He was wearing his uniform. Klaus reached out, grabbed the man by the belt and pulled him roughly across the threshold.

Diego caught his mouth in a bruising kiss, barely giving Klaus time to slam the door closed, before he was backing him across the room, hands tugging at his wet hair.

‘Nng,’ Klaus groaned, as he was shoved roughly up against the kitchen counters.

‘Sorry,’ Diego muttered, mistaking his moan of pleasure for a complaint. The man pressed apologetic kisses to his shoulders, his hands travelling down Klaus’s body to rest on his thighs, before lifting him up and sitting him on the countertop. He pushed his legs apart, causing the towel to come dangerously loose, dropping several inches down Klaus’s chest.

‘You look good in your uniform,’ Klaus said, willingly spreading his legs for Diego to stand in between them. ‘Very sexy.’

‘Yeah?’ Diego leaned in for another kiss, brief but hard, nipping Klaus’s lower lip when he pulled away. ‘You look good in your, uh, towel.’

As if to punctuate his point, the man’s right hand disappeared beneath it. They stopped talking, kissing furiously instead. Klaus tore at the buttons of Diego’s shirt, desperate to get his hands on the bare skin beneath. The man began to pepper kisses down the skin of his neck.

They were interrupted by the sound of the door swinging open, and Klaus opened his eyes to see Vanya standing, shell-shocked, in the doorway.

‘Oh, shit,’ she said, immediately covering her eyes with her hand. ‘Shit, sorry. I just… I forgot my phone.’

Diego ignored her with impressive resolution, barely pausing to glance over his shoulder at her before he resumed his assault on Klaus’s neck.

‘Hng,’ Klaus wrestled with the man’s shoulders, pushing him away, feeling his cheeks turning very hot. He was pretty sure he and Vanya were matching shades of scarlet.

‘I’m going back out,’ the woman announced, in a loud, clear voice, grasping blindly around on the coffee table to find her phone. ‘I’ll be out _all_ night. I won’t be back until the morning, and I will knock, _several times _before coming back in.’

Diego was using the time apart to hurriedly unbutton his own shirt. Klaus nodded in vague acknowledgement of Vanya’s words, his eyes glued to the naked skin being unveiled before him.

‘Ciao,’ he muttered under his breath, as the door swung closed again.

The man reached the last few buttons of his shirt, and Klaus eyes ran insatiably over his body: the tanned skin, the muscular arms, the toned abs, the nipple rin- _wait._

‘Oh, fuck _off_,’ Klaus shouted, making Diego jump.

‘W-what?’ Diego asked, hesitating on the last button. He left the shirt slung over his shoulders and stared confusedly down at his own bare chest.

Klaus didn’t bother answering, sliding off the counter and ducking his head so as to swipe his tongue over the man’s pierced nipple. He tugged it gently beneath his teeth and then leaned in to suck, relishing the clashing sensations of cold, hard metal and hot, velvety skin. He ran his hands over the man’s abdomen, tracing the firm muscles beneath his fingertips.

Diego’s right hand fisted in his hair, and Klaus made to move lower before the man pulled him back up again, catching his mouth in a bruising kiss.

The man lifted him up and set off across the room with Klaus’s legs wrapped around his middle. The towel was around his waist by now, hanging on by a thread. Diego paused in the centre of the room.

‘Where’s your bed?’

Klaus pointed behind him at the screen on the far side of the room, unwilling to speak if it meant unlatching his lips from the other man’s neck. Diego’s skin was pleasantly salty, and slightly rough with stubble. He ran his tongue over it and then up along his jaw before catching the man’s earlobe between his teeth. He breathed in deeply, chasing the lush scent of aftershave on Diego’s skin.

He was dropped unceremoniously on the bed. When he looked up, his eyes were drawn to Diego’s hands hastily undoing his belt buckle. Klaus waited until the man started pushing down his trousers, before tangling his legs with Diego’s own and tripping him purposefully onto the bed.

‘Let’s keep the uniform,’ Klaus said, as the man landed with a surprised huff on top of him. ‘Just for a minute.’

‘Fine,’ Diego shrugged. He grinned wolfishly. ‘But only if we lose the towel.’

Klaus wriggled beneath him, loosening the towel further. It wasn’t doing much to protect his modesty anymore. His hard cock was distending the fabric and Diego was bracing himself on his elbows above him so as to be able to get a better view of it.

‘Sounds fair,’ Klaus said, working his hands under the man’s unbuttoned shirt to continue kneading at his muscles.

Diego pulled the towel away with the air of someone unwrapping a long-awaited present. He swallowed as he threw the towel off the bed, and then wrapped a hand around Klaus’s cock, jerking him off roughly for a few blissful seconds.

He stopped abruptly, ignoring Klaus’s noise of protest at the loss of contact

‘Your minute’s up,’ he said, grinning. He swung his legs off the bed and shrugged off his shirt before tugging his trousers down and kicking them off his feet.

‘Yes, doctor,’ Klaus murmured, sitting up. He swung himself into the man’s lap and pushed a hand inside the distended fabric of his boxers to grasp hold of his hard cock beneath.

‘Not… a… doctor,’ Diego huffed, as Klaus began stroking his thick length.

Klaus smirked at him and then pushed, hard, at his shoulders, forcing him down until his back hit the mattress. He withdrew his hand and pulled the man’s boxers down. ‘But I’m a good patient, right?’

‘Oh, _God_. The best.’ Diego shuffled back to lie fully on the bed, tugging Klaus along with him, until their hips were neatly aligned. ‘You’re the best. Now _move_.’

If there was one thing Klaus did well, he thought, it was move. He smirked down at the man and set up a rolling rhythm, rocking back and forth over the man’s cock. He was already leaking precome over Diego’s stomach, and the man was looking down at it with satisfaction. He trailed a finger through it and lifted it to Klaus’s mouth.

Klaus sucked obediently, hollowing his cheeks and rolling his tongue around the digit. Diego’s hand was back on his cock, his callused grip heavenly against Klaus’s sensitive skin.

Klaus pulled the man’s hand from his mouth, and whimpered, clawing at Diego’s wrist in a desperate attempts to get the man to stop fisting his cock. Diego was watching him from beneath those thick, black eyelashes. And Klaus was going to come, embarrassingly quickly.

Diego narrowed his eyes at him, and Klaus stopped protesting, letting the man resume his pace.

‘Good boy,’ Diego growled.

Klaus came immediately at the words, Diego’s name falling from his lips. His come hit the man’s chest in thick spurts, a drop landing on his chin, blissfully close to his mouth. Klaus leaned in and sucked it away, before languidly making his way down the man’s body, pausing to bite at the thick muscles of his biceps and run his tongue once more over his nipple ring. He reached the v shaped muscles of Diego’s lower abdomen, pointing him suggestively towards the man’s cock, lying hard and red against his stomach.

‘You gonna…?’ Diego asked hopefully, as if there was even the slightest chance Klaus might _not. _

Klaus fixed him with a sultry stare, and Diego pushed himself up onto his elbows to get a better view. One hand settled on the back of Klaus’s neck, guiding him gently in.

Klaus shook his head free and leaned down to bite teasingly at the man’s inner thighs. He waited until Diego was groaning in protest before lifting his head and licking a stripe up the man’s cock.

‘Fuck,’ Diego cussed. ‘Yeah, Klaus. That’s better.’

The man’s hand was back on Klaus’s neck, and this time he let it draw him in, opening his mouth and swallowing the man’s length down as far as he could.

Diego, he was delighted to learn, was incredibly vocal when he was getting head. The man let out a steady stream of intelligible curses and encouragements as Klaus enthusiastically sucked him off, lifting his hips off the bed to meet his mouth.

Klaus choked as one thrust hit him hard in the back of the throat, but gripped the man’s hips and ducked his head, preventing him from withdrawing.

The man’s hand had drifted into his hair, where it tugged determinedly, in an attempt to pull him away.

Klaus ignored him, taking the man deeper and swallowing again when the head of Diego’s cock hit the back of his mouth.

‘Gonna come,’ Diego protested, shifting beneath him.

Klaus glanced up at the man, meeting his eye and made a low humming noise, then winked. Diego’s release shot straight down his throat and Klaus pulled hurriedly back to lap up the rest, his tongue working purposefully over the head.

‘Klaus,’ Diego panted, watching him work. ‘Fuck, _Klaus_.’

Klaus moaned around the man’s cock before pulling away, half for effect, and half from the bone deep satisfaction of having _finally _made the other man come. The fact he could still taste it in his mouth was just an added bonus. He sank onto the bed next to him, unable to hold in a giggle.

‘That was good,’ Diego said, voice rough and unsteady.

It was an understatement in Klaus’s opinion. He placed a hand over the man’s mouth to stop any further attempts at post-match analysis, and rolled into him, resting his head on his chest.

‘I really did want to take you out again,’ Diego continued, talking around his hand. He began running a hand through Klaus’s hair.

‘Well don’t let me stop you,’ Klaus murmured.

Satisfied and glowing with happiness, he fell asleep there, with his half open mouth pressed to the man’s collarbone and one finger still resting against his lips.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, hi. Here's a nice healthy dose of pure filth to start your week. 
> 
> Don't say I don't look after you.


	10. Chapter 10

Klaus awoke early to grey morning light streaming through the windows and the sound of a pigeon cooing on the windowsill. Diego was standing directly in front of his line of vision, bent over to pull on his boxer shorts, giving Klaus a delicious view of the firm, rounded globes of his ass.

‘Peachy,’ Klaus mumbled, voice gravelly from sleep. He rubbed his eyes and sat up as Diego turned to face him.

‘You lookin’ at my ass?’ Diego asked, turning around as he pulled his boxers up over his legs.

‘No,’ Klaus said, automatically. He hesitated. ‘Actually, _yes_. Yes I am. I’m allowed to do that now.’

Diego leaned down over him, arms braced on either side of him on the bed, trapping him in place. He moved in until their noses were nearly brushing, and then grinned predatorily, eyes flicking down to his lips.

‘You were already doing it anyway.’

Klaus wound his arms around the man’s neck and pulled him in for a kiss. ‘I’m only human.’

The kiss turned hot and heavy, Diego losing his balance and falling down to lie heavily on top of him. Klaus reached down and shoved his hands under the hem of the man’s boxers, digging his fingers into the skin beneath.

‘You can’t possibly have somewhere better to be?’ Klaus asked breathlessly, when Diego pulled away with a groan.

‘Worse,’ Diego said, sounding appropriately apologetic as he reached for his trousers. ‘I gotta work. Early shift.’

Klaus yawned widely and reclined on the pillows, settling in for a reverse strip tease as Diego pulled on his uniform.

The man looked up to see him staring as he fastened his belt. ‘I’ll call you.’

‘In three days?’ Klaus asked, scrunching his nose up.

Diego raised an eyebrow at him. ‘How’s three hours?’

Klaus rolled onto his front and sank back down under the covers, wriggling his toes contentedly and smirking into the pillow. ‘Well that’s just a bit keen.’

Diego didn’t reply. Klaus lay with his face buried in the pillows, listening to the man’s movements as he rummaged around the living room pulling on clothes. He didn’t look up again until he heard the click of the door handle and the creak of hinges.

‘Klaus?’ Diego was watching him from the doorway. He grinned when Klaus met his eye.

‘Yes?’

‘I _am _keen.’

…

When Klaus next awoke, the sun falling through the windows was bright and warm. The sheets were still tangled from the previous night’s activities, and Klaus was rolled up in them like a human burrito. He dragged himself into the kitchen, still wrapped up in the soft black cotton, unable to keep the smile from his face.

Vanya was stood in the kitchen, still in her work apron, applying liberal amounts of Dettol to the countertop where Diego had been pinning Klaus the night before.

‘We didn’t do it on the counter,’ Klaus informed her, mid-yawn. He rummaged in the cupboards for toaster pastries. ‘It was all very civilised.’

‘Sure it was,’ Vanya said.

She didn’t stop scrubbing, but Klaus could hear the smile in her voice. He crammed four pop tarts into the toaster and then grabbed hold of Vanya’s waist. He span her around and dipped her into a low bend, before standing her upright and raising his hand for a celebratory high five.

‘Shouldn’t you be high fiving Diego right now?’ Vanya asked.

‘Already did,’ Klaus grinned. ‘Just not with my hand.’

Vanya mimed vomiting and left the room.

…

The happier Klaus was, he noticed, the more the ghosts seemed to flock to him. He had a group of ghoulish regulars now, at the diner, who filled the tables regardless of whether there was anyone else sat at them, drinking non-existent coffee and watching him with cold, dead eyes.

‘It’s because you’re warm,’ Ben told him, with a bored expression, while he hid in the staff room.

‘What?’ Klaus snapped.

‘You’re warm,’ Ben shrugged. ‘You feel good. It’s like sitting in front of a radiator after coming in from the snow.’

Klaus blinked at him. ‘I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.’

Ben was being nice, whether he’d admit it or not, because Klaus had fucked up that morning. He had still been half high on his new favourite blend of caffeine, sugar and the burning afterglow of Diego’s embrace, when a new customer walked in.

The man had taken a table for two in the corner. Klaus had poured him a coffee and served him a full plate of waffles and eggs- sunny side up- before the man had turned his head and revealed a bullet hole in the left hand side of his head.

Klaus had stumbled away, pouring coffee all over the linoleum. When he had looked up Agnes was watching him, concerned, eyes flickering between him and the empty table he had just served a plate of food.

‘It was an easy mistake to make,’ said Ben. ‘The hole was half hidden under his hair.’

‘I should have noticed,’ Klaus snapped. ‘He wasn’t eating. And he’d ordered the waffles. Nobody can resist the waffles.’

There had been other clues too. The out-dated hairstyle; the unfashionable clothes; the confused way he’d eyed Klaus’s skirt. The man had been in the wrong time. And Klaus? He should have noticed.

Klaus couldn’t think of a worse time to start attracting more ghosts. He’d already made more than one slip-up in front of Diego. He couldn’t afford to make any more. Klaus was comfortable with being different, always had been, his wardrobe was proof enough of that. But everybody had a limit. And who knew? Maybe talking to the dead was Diego’s.

The man in question rang while Klaus was still at work. He abandoned the coffee machine mid-latte, throwing a tired wink over his shoulder at the waiting trucker, in order to get away with it. The old man’s grumpy face lit up, his beard twitching as he grinned toothily back.

‘Hey,’ Klaus said, cramming himself into the storeroom as he whispered into the phone. 'I hate to break this to you, but I’m at work, and the men are just queuing up for me. I’ve got a trucker waiting right now who is practically foaming at the mouth.’

‘Oh yeah?’ the man’s voice was cheerful over the phone. ‘Well you _are_ a total catch in that apron.’

‘So…’ Klaus continued, as brazenly as he could manage. He tried imagining Diego naked in an attempt to calm his nerves. Predictably, it only made them worse. ‘You gonna stake a claim, big guy? Ask me on that date?’

‘Sure,’ Diego said. ‘Dinner on Friday night? Or I was thinking…’ There was an awkward pause. ‘You could come over to mine? We could, I dunno, watch another movie or something?’

Klaus smirked, reclining against the store cupboard shelves as bone-deep satisfaction flooded his body. ‘If you want me to come over for sex, Diego, you only need to ask.’

‘Ok,’ Diego said, not sounding anywhere near as embarrassed as Klaus might have liked. ‘Do you want to come fuck on Friday night? I can pick you up at eight.’

Klaus was already planning his outfit. ‘Sounds like my kind of date.’

‘Oh and Klaus?’

‘Yes, Diego?’

‘If Vanya asks, tell her I’m taking you out to dinner.’

…

Klaus finished his shift at the diner at ten o’ clock, pausing only to high-five Vanya as they swapped places behind the counter. His good mood had disintegrated over the course of the day, and the ghosts had moved off along with it. The beginning of a headache was drumming relentlessly at the base of his skull.

He immediately gave up on his idea of a relaxed evening when he arrived home to find Ben standing in the centre of the living room with his arms folded.

‘I’ve got an idea,’ Ben told him.

‘And _I’ve_ got a rumbly tummy,’ said Klaus, making a beeline for the refrigerator.

‘You can make the ghosts go away.’ Ben followed him to the fridge, sticking his head straight through the door and making Klaus screech with horror on the other side of it. ‘You did it to me remember?’

Klaus sighed, reaching around the disembodied head to grab a block of cheese from the back of the fridge. ‘It was an accident.’

‘No it wasn’t,’ Ben protested. ‘You made me disappear. On purpose.’

‘But I don’t know _how _I did it.’ Klaus said. He set about making a grilled cheese sandwich. ‘I couldn’t do it again.’

‘C’mon, Klaus. This could change your life. You could get rid of the ghosts. You could keep Diego. Be a normal person.’

Klaus wrinkled his nose up. He didn’t have any particular interest in being a normal person. But he _did_ want to keep Diego. And spending half his life looking at deadly wounds and talking to the undead was getting kinda old.

‘Be a _semi_-normal person,’ Ben corrected, spotting Klaus’s conflicted facial expression. ‘C’mon, I’ll help you practice.’

They spent the evening stood opposite each other in the living room, Klaus glaring unblinkingly at Ben in an attempt to will him out of existence. At one point Ben tumbled backwards and Klaus let out a victorious whoop before the other man explained his legs had gone numb. They resumed the practice session on the couch.

‘Try being angry,’ Ben suggested.

‘I _am _angry,’ Klaus said. ‘I was going to spend the evening eating cheese and googling inappropriate things on Vanya’s laptop.’

‘No,’ Ben said. ‘Really angry. When you made me disappear, it was because you were angry with me. It was like a burst of energy, almost as if- _would you stop yawning. _Imagine… I don’t know… imagine Diego dumping you._’ _

Klaus hissed at the man, irritation and hunger overtaking his common sense. He narrowed his eyes and imagined the man disappearing. Ben flickered out of sight, like a faulty light bulb.

‘Oooh,’ Klaus beamed, and Ben buzzed back into life, brighter than ever. ‘I did it.’

‘Good,’ Ben said approvingly. ‘Well done. But last time I was gone way longer. Maybe try being less happy.’

They continued to practice until the early hours of the morning. By three am, Klaus was throwing the man so far out of existence that he had to sit and wait around for him to make it back again. He finally got chance to make a sandwich during one of these interludes, and was sat chewing on it when Ben finally reappeared.

‘One more time?’ Klaus asked, around a mouthful of bread.

‘No,’ Ben sank onto the couch next to him, looking exhausted. His skin was pale and sweaty, his eyes dark and haunted. ‘I’m done. Practice on Nana Vanya.’

‘But…’ Klaus glanced over at Nana Vanya who was merrily knitting away in the corner. ‘She’s just a little old lady.’

‘You can’t kill her, Klaus,’ Ben said, looking deeply amused. ‘She’s already dead.’

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a few more chapters left! I'll try to keep uploading once a week. 
> 
> Thanks for all your lovely comments so far ^^


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohmigosh, hi. Please forgive me for the extended and unannounced break!
> 
> I had a go at writing something original for NaNoWriMo.
> 
> ANYWAY. Back to the fanfiction... I promise to post the last few chapters in a semi-regular fashion. And thanks if you're still reading. :')

It soon transpired that banishing the ghosts Klaus met in the real world was not nearly as easy as banishing a good-natured Ben from his own living room. Klaus practiced on the dead regulars at the diner, but could rarely push them away for longer than a few minutes at a time. When they returned, they hovered nervously in the periphery of his vision until they regained confidence, came closer and Klaus had to boot them out of existence all over again. It was exhausting.

He got through the week on a combination of caramel frappuccinos and an ever-increasing repertoire of inappropriate fantasies about Diego. Agnes had to call him out more than once for daydreaming, and Ben began teasing him about his _‘Diego face.’ _

‘It’s like the centre of a Venn diagram for drunk, dying and horny.’

‘Oh, _yeah_,’ Klaus agreed, excitedly. ‘That’s _exactly_ how he makes me feel.’

Ben wrinkled his nose up at him. ‘Gross.’

…

The man in question rang again on Friday morning to tell Klaus, in an extremely grumpy voice, that Luther had asked Allison on a date.

‘Ooh,’ Klaus sighed happily. Everything was coming together. ‘That’s wonderful.’

‘No it isn’t.’ Diego said, huffing. ‘Last week, he thought _I _was dating her.’

‘But… you’re _not,’ _Klaus clarified. ‘Didn’t you tell him that?’

‘Well, yeah. But he still _thought_ I was. He should have waited a respectable amount of time.’

‘What?’ Klaus asked, smirking now. ‘For her to get over her non-existent relationship with you, a gay man?’

Diego made another huffing noise but Klaus could tell he was smiling. ‘We still on for tonight?’

‘We can be _on _every night as far as I’m concerned.’

‘Good,’ Diego said. ‘I’m going to hang up now before you change your mind.’

That evening, Klaus was a whirlwind of manic energy. He whipped around the apartment, ransacking the closet, rummaging through Vanya’s makeup bag, and brushing his teeth multiple times.

He had paired his lace-up leather trousers with a tie-dye crop top and a pink fluffy cardigan. He was going for somewhere between _girlfriend material _and _wanton temptress_, and he thought it was working rather well. He paused to practise his _come hither _eyes in the mirror of the walk in closet, before heading out into the living room.

The other members of the household were irritatingly calm, as if they didn’t realise the magnitude of the occasion. Ben and Nana Vanya had been absorbed in a game of chess for the past two hours, and Vanya had spent the entire day baking.

The counters of their cramped kitchenette were lined with piroshki and vatrushkas and the entire apartment was rich with the scent of warm, buttery pastry. Klaus spent some time wafting his cardigan around in an attempt to absorb the incredible scent.

‘Klaus,’ Ben protested, after several minutes of this. ‘Would you stop floating around like a bat, you’re throwing me off my game.’

Klaus ignored him and selected two of the pastries. He took large bites from both, one in each hand, and hopped nervously from foot to foot as he chewed, staring unwaveringly at the door.

‘Careful,’ Vanya said, looking up from her spot on the couch. She smiled. ‘You’ll spoil your dinner.’

‘Thish ish mah dinner,’ Klaus proclaimed, around a large mouthful of pastry.

Vanya frowned. ‘I thought Diego was taking you out to eat?’

Klaus shook his head absentmindedly, absorbed in shovelling pastries into his mouth. He needed his energy. ‘We’re just going back to his to fuck.’

‘_Klaus!_’ Vanya said, horrified.

Ben looked deeply unsurprised as, alarmingly, did Nana Vanya. The two of them continued with their chess game as if nothing had been said.

‘Oops,’ Klaus lowered the pastries slowly, meeting Vanya’s eye. He wiped a crumb from the corner of his mouth. ‘I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.’

…

The doorbell rang at five past eight. For his own entertainment, Klaus let Vanya answer the door.

‘Hey,’ Diego said, looking awkward when confronted with the woman. Which was reasonable, Klaus thought, given that last time they’d seen each other Diego had been making a less than subtle attempt to get him off on her kitchen counter. ‘Is Klaus ready for dinner?’

Klaus was thrilled to see the man had delved into his wardrobe and emerged with his tightest pair of jeans yet. He had paired them with a black v-neck tshirt, and a leather jacket. The effect was mouth-watering.

Vanya narrowed his eyes. ‘He’s had dinner.’

‘_Has_ he?’ Diego said, peering over her shoulder and shooting Klaus an exasperated look. ‘I meant drinks. We’re getting drinks.’

‘Yeah,’ Vanya snorted, raising herself onto her tiptoes in order to block his view of Klaus. ‘Sure you are.’

Diego smiled warily, edging past her into the apartment.

The man eyed the baked treats on the kitchen counter-top and made a valiant effort at conversation. ‘Smells good. Piroshki right? I remember Klaus saying your grandma makes them.’

Vanya stared at him, brow furrowing. ‘My grandma has been dead for fifteen years.’

Diego’s mouth fell open in a silent ‘o’ of confusion, and then snapped closed. His eyes met Klaus’s, narrowing imperceptibly.

‘It’s her recipe though,’ Vanya said. She turned to face Klaus. ‘I don’t remember telling you th-’

‘I’m ready,’ Klaus declared at the top of his voice, diving across the room. He grabbed Diego’s arm and manhandled him towards the door. ‘Let’s go Diego.’

The man allowed himself to be half wrestled down the stairs and through the door. He turned to shoot Klaus a confused look when they fell out onto the street, opening his mouth to speak.

‘_Lovely _weather,’ Klaus blurted out, in an effort to stop him speaking,

Diego’s look of confusion deepened. ‘It’s raining.’

…

Twenty minutes later, they pulled up outside the bar by Diego’s apartment block, to the thrumming beat of The Misfits in the CD player and Klaus’s very vocal confusion.

‘You don’t actually have to take me for a drink, you know,’ he said, frowning at the miserable little wood panelled building. ‘I’m gonna put out anyway.’

Diego ignored him, getting out of the car without a word. He rounded the bonnet and opened Klaus’s door, pulling him out of his seat with total disregard for his reluctance.

‘I want to talk to you,’ said Diego.

‘But, Diego,’ said Klaus, his voice a high-pitched whine. He didn’t want to _talk_. He pulled the man close and buried his nose in his neck, hoping the intoxicating scent of the man’s cologne would erase the sensation of foreboding within his chest. ‘I want you _now_.’

Diego patted him soothingly on the shoulder and then forcibly manhandled him across the dingy parking lot and through the door to the bar. The place was nearly empty, and its atmosphere was even gloomier than Klaus remembered, perhaps dulled by the lack of ghostly grannies chattering in the corner. The room smelled like cheap beer and onion rings.

‘Sit,’ said Diego, pointing at one of many empty tables with the air of a schoolteacher dealing with a hyperactive child.

Klaus sat. ‘Yes, _Sir_.’

The man redeemed himself somewhat by returning from the bar with a mojito alongside his pint of lager.

‘Not another _mocktail_, I hope,’ said Klaus, sniffing it suspiciously. He smiled as the pungent smell of rum assailed his senses. ‘Ah_, _that’s the spirit. Pun _intended.’_

Diego ignored his wordsmanship. The man’s brow was furrowed and he was staring into his pint of lager as if the surface might suddenly part and reveal the secrets of the universe. Klaus watched him apprehensively and took a gulp of his mojito.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Diego began, slowly, as if he had indeed been thinking and it had taken up a large amount of his energy. ‘When I first met you at the hospital, you were running away. I thought it was from me at the time, but now I don’t think it was.’

‘Good gracious,’ Klaus peered at him over his drink, trying desperately to ignore the sickening sinking sensation in his chest. ‘Who in their right mind would run away from you?’

‘Exactly,’ Diego agreed. He continued his soliloquy. ‘Then last week, when we drove past the graveyard, you freaked out. So I was wondering about that, and _then_ I remembered what you said last time we were here.’ He stabbed the table with his fingertip. ‘You said there was a group of people knitting in the corner.’

‘Oh,’ Klaus let out a high pitched laugh. ‘See that was actually quite a funny little joke. I have a very sophisticated sense of humour. It just went straight over your head.’

‘Well,’ Diego said. ‘My neighbour Eileen used to have a knitting group before she died.’

Klaus gulped.

‘And just when I think I’m going crazy_,’ _Diego said, clearly warming to his theme. ‘You tell me you’ve been hanging out with Vanya’s grandmother. Who, it turns out, is dead as a doorknob.’

‘Doornail,’ Klaus corrected.

‘What?’

‘Dead as a doornail,’ Klaus said. ‘That’s the phrase.’

‘_Klaus_.’

‘Yes, Diego?’

‘Can you see dead people?’

Klaus froze in his seat, his mojito half way to his mouth. He slowly lowered it, and then raised it again, and then downed the whole drink in one. ‘Yes, I can.’

‘Huh,’ said Diego. ‘Thought so. You want another drink?’

Klaus thought about it. His body was screaming for something. The addict within him was still calling out for more, _more, more. _He didn’t think it had anything to do with the drink.

‘Are you not freaked out by this?’ he asked warily, when Diego returned with a second mojito.

‘Yeah,’ Diego said. He rested his hand on Klaus’s as he sat down. ‘That’s some crazy ass shit.’

‘But you’re… still here,’ Klaus pointed out, struck a little dumb by that fact.

Diego shrugged. ‘I care about you. I want to…’ He hesitated, looking slightly embarrassed, but forged ahead anyway. ‘I want to look after you.’

Klaus smirked. ‘Oh, I can think of a few ways you could do _that_.’

‘Hey,’ Diego frowned. ‘I’m being serious here, Klaus.’

‘I don’t need rescuing, ’ Klaus said, frowning back at him. ‘I can save myself.’

‘Funny,’ Diego said. ‘I kinda thought you were rescuing me.’

If Diego thought that Klaus wasn’t going to tease him mercilessly for that remark later, he was in for a nasty shock. Luckily for him, at that moment in time, Klaus had more important things to be doing. Like getting into Diego’s pants. As quickly as possible.

Klaus batted his eyelashes. ‘Does this conclude the civilised portion of the evening?’

‘Why?’ Diego grinned at him. ‘You wanna go be uncivilised?’

‘I do,’ Klaus said, pleased the man had cottoned on so quickly. ‘And don’t think I won’t get started in public.’

The man smirked at him, his leg rubbing up against Klaus’s under the cramped table. ‘Don’t think I won’t let you.’


	12. Chapter 12

The short walk back to Diego’s apartment was quiet, verging on awkward. Klaus was running through a million potential things to say in head, batting each new thought away as quickly as the last.

It had turned dark, and the temperature had dropped. Klaus settled, just this once, for keeping silent. He linked his arm through Diego’s as they walked, allowing himself to be led through the door and up the stairs to the man’s apartment.

‘So, uh,’ Diego ducked his head and disappeared into the kitchen, as soon as the front door was closed behind them. ‘You want tea?’

‘Why do you always try and give me _tea?’ _Klaus complained. He sat gingerly on the edge of the couch, remembering exactly what had happened the last time he had been in there.

‘Well what _do_ you want?’ Diego asked, popping his head out of the kitchen door.

Klaus raised an eyebrow at him. He could think of several dozen things he wanted. And none of them came in a teabag. ‘Do you want the full list?’

‘Yeah.’ Diego grinned at him, forgetting about drinks and moving closer. ‘Damn right I want the list.’

Klaus’s heart had started pummelling his ribcage. He swallowed, trying to remember the last time he’d been this nervous before sex. He tried to think of a sassy response and… _couldn’t_.

‘What’s up?’ Diego asked. He sank down onto the couch and rested a hand on Klaus’s thigh, warm even through the thick leather of his pants. ‘Please tell me my apartment isn’t haunted?’

‘Nope,’ Klaus shook his head. He was finding it difficult to breathe. ‘No, no. No ghosts.’

Just Diego. Just Diego looking like everything Klaus had ever wanted. And somehow that was that scarier than any ghost ever could be.

‘Ok.’ Diego was watching him closely. His other hand had made it’s way to the back of Klaus’s neck without him noticing, and was pulling him slowly in. ‘So, um, about that list…’

Either the mojitos had been stronger than Klaus thought, or this increased proximity was making his head spin. He lunged forwards dizzily and they bumped noses with a painful crack. Diego pulled back with a wince.

‘Was headbutting on the list?’ he asked, rubbing his nose.

‘Sorry,’ Klaus moaned. He buried his head in his hands, mortified, wondering when his sexual prowess had so cruelly deserted him. He peeked out at Diego from behind his fingers. ‘Sorry. I panicked.’

‘For fuck’s sake,’ Diego grumbled, now full on glowering at him. ‘You’re so _fucking… cute_.’

Klaus let out a surprised squeal as he was tackled roughly, and pushed back to lie against the couch cushions. Diego’s hands encircled his waist and then disappeared with impressive speed beneath his top.

‘You can panic if you like,’ Diego said, talking into his neck, in between hot kisses. ‘I’m just gonna get started.’

Klaus had stopped panicking. He was too busy trying to fist as much of Diego’s hair as possible between his fingers. He wrapped his legs around the man’s waist and squeezed, pressing them together at the hips.

Diego nipped, _sharply_, at his neck and then looked up, scraping their stubble as he brought their jaws together. He turned his head and kissed Klaus, square on the mouth. It was needy but intense in a way none of their previous kisses had been. Something in Klaus’s head flipped and his nerves disappeared. He kissed back with fervent, biting enthusiasm, relishing the noises the other man was making against his lips.

Diego was hard against his thigh, and rubbing up against him with slow, pressing rolls of his hips. Klaus turned his head to gasp for air, and managed to force out a sentence.

‘You gonna fuck me on the couch? I thought you were a gentleman.’

‘No,’ Diego met his eye. The man’s hair was roughed up, and sticking out in all directions, his lips pink and swollen from kissing. ‘I’m gonna make love to you in the bedroom.’

‘O-oh,’ Klaus said, overcome by the uncomfortable sensation that his insides were melting into a puddle. ‘Oh, okay.’

Not trusting himself to speak, he got back to kissing, only to be pushed away as Diego got unsteadily to his feet. The man reached out and grabbed his hand, hauling him up and tugging him after him across the living room. Klaus focused on putting one foot in front of the other, and looked up to see Diego kicking off his jeans and falling back to sprawl on the bed.

Klaus slipped out of his cardigan and then pulled off his crop top. He paused, unmoving by the bed, his pale skin lit by the moonlight streaming in through the window. Sprawled out on the sheets before him, Diego was staring at him like he was the last thing he would ever see. Klaus hesitated, overwhelmed by the sudden intensity of the man’s gaze.

‘Soo big guy,’ he said, panicking. ‘D’you want a lap dance?’

‘What?’ Diego sat up straight on the bed, brow furrowing. ‘No! _Well_… I mean, _yeah_, but… just… not right now. Come here.’

He reached out and grabbed Klaus’s hand, pulling him towards the bed and beginning to pepper kisses along the wiry muscles of his abdomen.

‘You’re beautiful,’ Diego said, lifting his head to look him directly in the eye. ‘You’re so _fucking _beautiful.’

He was toppled forwards seconds later when Diego’s hands landed on his hips and pulled him down onto the bed. The man grinned triumphantly and moved to straddle him, lifting his arms and pinning them to the bed behind his head.

‘You gonna take these off?’ he asked cheerfully, grinding down into Klaus’s leather pants. The man’s cock was visibly straining through the thin cotton of his boxers. ‘Or should I do it for you?’

‘Please,’ Klaus nodded, not wanting to take his eyes of the man for any longer than a second. ‘Knock yourself out.’

Diego began the process of removing the pants with determined efficiency but got lost somewhere along the way. Five minutes later the leather was still bunched around his knees and Diego was kissing down the lengths of Klaus’s calves, lips exploring the bare skin revealed between the lacing.

When he reached his feet, he sat up and pulled the pants down off his legs before moving back up the bed and beginning to press kisses in a trail down his abdomen. Klaus turned his head and bit into Diego’s pillow as the man began kissing his lower stomach.

‘Diego?’ Klaus said, as Diego’s fingers dipped below the lacy hem of his briefs.

‘Mm?’ Diego kissed along from one hip bone to the other as he dragged Klaus’s briefs slowly down his thighs.

‘I need you to fuck me now_,’ _Klaus said. His fingernails were digging into Diego’s shoulders, either in an attempt to pull him up or push him down. He couldn’t choose.

‘Yeah, just…’ Diego’s breath was hot against his skin. ‘Hang on a minute.’

Klaus moaned as the man’s mouth closed around the head of his cock. He fisted his hands first in the sheets and then in Diego’s hair, tugging experimentally. Diego raised his eyebrows at him, somehow maintaining an air of cool amusement as he moved his mouth lower on Klaus’s cock.

‘Fuckity-fuckity-fuck,’ Klaus mumbled. He bucked his hips up and Diego pulled back, only to lift Klaus’s legs in the air, and then dive back in, focusing his attentions… _elsewhere_.

‘_Diego,’ _Klaus protested, in a slight state of shock. The man’s tongue was pressing against his hole. He felt his cheeks flushing bright red. ‘Give me some warning.’

‘Okay,’ Diego mumbled. He pulled away, lifting his head to meet Klaus’s gaze, a smirk on his face. ‘I’m gonna rim you now.’

He moved back in and continued to lather attention on the sensitive skin, his tongue pressing inside in lazy fucking motions. Klaus let his head fall back into the pillows and stared, panting, at the ceiling.

The way Diego was lavishing attention on every inch of his body was completely foreign to him. He was used to quick, meaningless fucks where his partners simply took what they wanted then left. Klaus would often still be half dressed when they were done. It hadn’t ever bothered him. But this was something entirely new. The intensity was almost unbearable.

‘Please,’ Klaus moaned. ‘_Please_.’

Diego withdrew his head from between Klaus’s cheeks and moved back up the bed. He wiped his spit-slicked lips on the back of his hand. ‘Please what?’

‘Fuck me,’ Klaus demanded, patience wearing thin. ‘NOW.’

Diego rolled off him with an endearing lack of grace.

‘Go, go, go,’ Klaus hassled him, hitting the man repeatedly on the shoulder as he watched him rummage in the bedside table.

The man emerged with the box of condoms that Klaus had first seen in the glove box of his car. _Ribbed for her pleasure._ He grabbed it off him, unthinkingly, and rummaged through the contents of the box. Eleven out of twelve. Only one missing. Which he, Klaus, had stolen in the car.

‘What are you doing?’ Diego grumbled, grabbing the box back off him. ‘Gimme.’

‘Nothing,’ Klaus smirked, content in the knowledge Diego hadn’t been with anyone else since they’d met. ‘Keep going.’

Diego did keep going. He removed a bottle of lube from the bedside table and flicked open the lid.

Klaus’s brain short circuited at the sight of Diego confidently lubing up his fingers. He rolled over hurriedly, pushing himself up to rest on all fours, facing the headboard, and presenting his ass to the other man.

‘No,’ Diego said.

Klaus could hear in his voice that he was frowning. He looked back over his shoulder in confusion, wondering what he’d done wrong.

‘Nuh-uh,’ Diego’s hands landed on his waist and flipped him over with ease, leaving him lying on his back. He cupped Klaus’s jaw in his left hand, his thumb brushing reverently up the line of his cheekbone. ‘I wanna see your face.’

He leaned in for a kiss, as he trailed the warm, wet fingers of his right hand down the curve of Klaus’s ass. Klaus whimpered as the man pressed his tongue inside his mouth at the same time as he pressed one finger teasingly inside him.

‘Oh, God.’ Klaus turned his head from the kiss to gasp for air and raised his hips pointedly. ‘_More_.’

Catching his lips again, Diego made an approving noise against his mouth, pushing another finger inside him. He moved them lazily in and out, matching the speed of the kiss. His fingers brushed against Klaus’s prostate and he bit down on Diego’s lower lip.

‘Ow,’ the man muttered, pulling back just far enough to shoot him a scolding look. ‘Behave yourself.’

‘Stop teasing me then,’ Klaus huffed.

He wrapped his legs around Diego’s waist and used them to pull him in, until the man’s cock was pressed against his buttocks. He rocked up against it and Diego groaned, instantly removing his fingers and scrambling to get the condom over his cock.

‘Ready?’ he asked.

Klaus growled with frustration. He dug his heels into Diego’s ass and pulled him in.

The man took the hint and pushed inside in one slow, firm motion. His hips met Klaus’s ass and he paused, breathing heavily, his eyes flicking between Klaus’s face and the point where his cock disappeared inside him.

‘Diego,’ Klaus complained. ‘_Move.’ _

‘Fuck, sorry,’ Diego huffed out a laugh, looking for a second as if he’d entirely forgotten that moving was exactly what he supposed to be doing.

He pulled out and then bucked roughly back in, before setting up a punishing rhythm that had Klaus digging his nails into the man’s back and biting hard on his own lip.

‘Fuck, Klaus,’ Diego grunted. ‘You feel so good.’

‘You…’ Klaus began breathily. ‘You feel pretty okay too.’

Okay was an understatement. Klaus loved every inch of Diego’s body. He loved the warmth of his embrace, the salty tang of his skin, the scratch of his stubble when they kissed. He loved the breadth of his shoulders and the firm expanse of his muscular chest. He loved the weight of him.

Pressed firm into the mattress Klaus felt safe rather than trapped, shielded from the world as if nothing could reach him. Nothing but the drag of Diego’s hands over his body and the electric sensation of the man’s mouth on his skin.

‘Gonna make you come,’ Diego decided, with a tone of fierce determination that reminded Klaus vividly of the night they had first met; of the way Diego has leaned over him, desperately trying to pump life back into his heart.

Klaus was on the edge already, dragging his very least sexy thoughts from the depths of his mind in an attempt to stop himself coming immediately. The firm muscles of Diego’s stomach were dragging over his cock with each thrust, and he was painfully aware that he wasn’t going to last more than a few minutes.

He closed his eyes, desperate to prolong the experience, and Diego’s hand landed immediately on his face, cupping his cheek,

‘Look at me,’ the man demanded.

Klaus did, their eyes meeting for a heated second, before they were kissing. It was rough and messy, and utterly perfect. Diego closed a hot, rough hand around his cock and began to beat it in dragging, determined strokes. Klaus was vaguely aware that he was now repeating Diego’s name under his breath, like a needle skipping repeatedly on a broken record.

His orgasm hit him with a force verging on painful. His come pulsed slick and sticky between their chests, and Diego growled in satisfaction. The man’s hips stuttered up against him, and then he cursed loudly, pulling out almost fully before bucking back in, his cock throbbing deep inside Klaus as he came.

‘_Klaus_,’ he groaned, rocking steadily back and forth for a few exhausted, final thrusts before he withdrew and collapsed on the bed at his side.

...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who commented on the previous chapter! I'm so glad people are still reading. 
> 
> Here's some celebratory smut for you all.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finally doing it- I'm posting the last chapter! 
> 
> Thanks so much if you're still reading this!

As Autumn drew in the nights were growing colder, and Klaus was increasingly thankful that he had somewhere to stay. He was gradually starting to think of the apartment as his own. And gradually starting to think of Diego as his own too.

He was starting to drag a life together for himself. At the diner he had learnt to make a decent cup of coffee (although he saved this new and powerful knowledge for only his favourite customers. Handsy truckers and rowdy teenagers got the bad stuff.)

At home, he took up knitting: wrestling with needles and balls of wool in an attempt to craft something worth keeping. It was good practice he thought. Because he was also drawing together the loose threads of his existence, knotting them roughly together in a haphazard attempt to make something beautiful.

He was off the drugs. He was clean. It was truly awful.

Everything felt like too much and there were days when he simply longed to feel numb again.

Instead, he savoured the fleeting moments that made him feel high, collating them in a series of snapshots in his mind: Diego laughing at his jokes; Vanya playing the violin at two am; French toast dripping with maple syrup; Diego kissing him goodbye before work; Ben playing chess in the corner; Diego lying naked in his bed. Diego. Diego. _Diego_.

He was clean. It was worth it.

Diego had begun to spend nights more frequently at Klaus and Vanya’s place, claiming he preferred their apartment because it was closer to the hospital. Klaus suspected he was just hoping for a replay of the night he had treated the man to a viewing of all his skimpiest outfits in the walk in closet.

On one of the first nights Diego had stayed over, they had stumbled in drunk in the early hours of the morning, and spent an hour rolling around on the couch, entirely forgetting to keep their voices down, or hush their moans. Klaus had ended the night screaming into one fist and repeatedly thumping the couch cushions with the other while Diego laughed breathlessly in his ear.

Vanya had looked angry when she emerged from her bedroom the next morning, wrapped in a fluffy pink dressing gown. She stormed over to Diego, with fists clenched, took one look at the heart shaped pancake he was sliding onto Klaus’s plate, and then… _stopped. _The anger vanished from her eyes. She nodded, as if to say _fair enough, _and then turned on her heel and disappeared back into the bedroom.

Klaus gave Diego a thumbs up, talking thickly through his mouthful of pancake. ‘I think she likes you.’

Vanya stopped sitting on the couch after that, favouring Klaus’s sequinned bean bag instead. He decided it was safer not to tell her that they’d used that as well.

Diego had also won over Nana Vanya. The woman fussed around him constantly, pinching his cheek, ruffling his hair and cooing at him in Russian. Diego remained blissfully unaware of the extra attention, unable to feel her touch or hear her voice.

Ben, who had been spending most days with his nose buried in a Russian dictionary, reliably informed Klaus that she thought Diego was handsome.

…

Things were going well. Uncommonly well. Until, one evening, Klaus accidentally made Ben corporeal at the dinner table.

The three of them- Klaus, Diego and Vanya- were sat crowded around the kitchen table, drinking wine and swapping stories. Ben was levitating cross-legged above it- attempting to look bored, but listening intently- when Diego made Klaus laugh so hard that wine bubbled out of his nose.

Overcome with happiness, he looked up, and locked gazes with Ben. There followed a loud crack, and the man dropped from the air and landed, cross-legged and corporeal, on the table.

Diego turned white. He slumped sideways out of his chair and landed on the floor with a worrying thump.

Across the table, Vanya stood up very carefully. She too had gone pale, her skin a snowier white than usual. Her mouth was set into a hard, straight line. She assessed the scene before her. ‘I’ll put on a pot of coffee.’

‘_Ben_,’ Klaus snapped, overcoming his shock at the sight of Diego lying unconscious on the floor. ‘You’ve broken my boyfriend.’

Ben shrugged, examining his own hands with interest. He tapped his fingers experimentally on the table and looked thrilled at the hollow tapping sound it created.

‘Consider it revenge for all the time I’ve spent watching you pining over him.’

‘Shh,’ Klaus hissed. Diego was starting to come round, his eyes flickering open. ‘He’ll hear you.’

‘So?’ Ben frowned at him. He got down off the table, looking unsteady on his feet, and stared down at Diego as the man stirred. ‘He already knows you’re in love with him.’

‘Shh,’ Klaus repeated. Diego had opened his eyes fully and was staring at him with confusion. Klaus smiled down at him, cupping his face in his hands. ‘_Hey_. Stay with me, baby.’

It took a full minute for Diego to gain the strength to get up off the floor. He allowed Klaus to haul him over to the sofa and sank down upon it, looking faintly embarrassed. Klaus sat at his side, petting his chest and thighs in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.

‘Do you two _ever _stop pawing at each other?’ Ben huffed.

He sank down onto the silver sequinned beanbag, his eyes lighting up when it sank down beneath him, air whooshing out of it in a whistled huff.

‘Nice to meet you too,’ Diego grumbled. He pushed Klaus’s hands off his legs, squinting at Ben in disbelief.

‘Would someone _please _explain to me what is going on?’ Vanya asked, striding over from the kitchen with a steaming pot of coffee.

‘Did you faint too?’ Diego asked her hopefully.

‘No.’ Vanya said. ‘Not at all.’

‘Vanya,’ Klaus said, slowly. ‘Diego… This is Ben.’

Ben flickered inconveniently back out of existence, his skin taking on the translucent gleam Klaus was more familiar with. The man sighed and levitated up from the beanbag, floating off to stare out of the window, disappointment etched deep into his face.

‘He’s gone,’ Diego pointed out, staring open mouthed at the space where Ben had disappeared. The beanbag was gradually regaining its shape, the hollow where Ben’s body had been refilling with air.

‘No, no,’ Klaus said. ‘He’s still here.’

He stared hard at Ben, brows furrowed in an attempt to bring him back. Nothing happened. A trickle of blood ran down from his nose.

Vanya poured out three cups of coffee and then hesitated, uncertainly, over the fourth. She glanced at Klaus for clarification. He shook his head, wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. Ben had floated through the window and out into the night.

‘_Now_ he’s gone.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Vanya said. She cradled her coffee cup in her hands and glanced nervously around the room. ‘He just came out of nowhere.’

‘No, no,’ Klaus told her hurriedly, keen to make things right. ‘It’s ok. He came from the afterlife.’

‘So he’s one of your ghosts,’ Diego said matter of factly.

He had regained some colour and was wearing his _it’s an emergency _expression, which Klaus was all too intimately familiar with. He glared around the room with steely eyes, as if expecting Ben to spring back into life at any moment.

‘Oh, no,’ Klaus shook his head. ‘Well… _yes_. But it’s only Ben. He’s a friend.’

Vanya’s eyes lit up. ‘Ben? Is that who you’re always talking to?’

The walls of the apartment must be thinner than he’d thought. Klaus nodded, a little mortified. ‘I didn’t know you could hear that.’

Vanya shrugged. ‘I just thought he was an imaginary friend. Not that I was judging or anything. We all have them.’

She looked up from her coffee cup, to see Diego staring at her incredulously.

‘Well,’ she said, turning a little pink. ‘Some of us do.’

…

‘Are you okay?’ Klaus asked Diego, as they got ready for bed later.

They were not ripping each other’s clothes off in their usual routine, but standing at opposite sides of the mattress. Diego was unbuttoning his shirt slowly, with a faraway expression on his face.

Klaus couldn’t shake the feeling of dread creeping into his chest, the overwhelming sensation that he was about to lose the man. He was certain that this single, yet inextricable, part of him was enough to push Diego away. 

‘Fine,’ Diego said. He shrugged off his shirt and sat down on the mattress, still wearing his jeans. He frowned up at Klaus. ‘It’s just really fucking _weird_.’

‘_Sorry_,’ Klaus said, stricken. He felt horribly exposed, stripped down to his underwear, with Diego staring at him as if he was an exotic animal in a zoo.

He grabbed his pink satin robe from the floor and began to wriggle into it. ‘It’s never happened before.’

‘No,’ Diego reached out for him, toppling him on to the mattress and carefully removing the robe from his grasp. He pulled Klaus into a warm embrace, running his hand up and down his back. ‘I’m not blaming you.’

‘Oh,’ Klaus sighed in relief. He began to press kisses to Diego’s shoulders. ‘For a minute there I thought you were saying _I_ was weird.’

‘You _are_,’ Diego said, smirking. ‘But I love it.’

‘Oh’ Klaus said, unable to think of anything more eloquent. His brain was doing the annoying thing it did whenever Diego said the L word: repeating it back to him like an overexcited parrot.

‘He wasn’t what I expected,’ Diego said. He rolled onto his back and stared contemplatively at the ceiling. ‘Ben… I thought he’d be more, I dunno, _ghostly_.’

‘What _are _you talking about?’

‘Like… glowing or, or blue or something.’

Klaus frowned. He had been seeing ghosts for as long as he could remember. He had babbled to them as a toddler, played hide and seek with them as a child, even shared a desk with a dead girl named Lucy in high school. Not one of them had been blue.

‘Why would he be _blue?’_

Diego shrugged. ‘Well I’m just glad he wasn’t. It was scary enough already.’

‘If you think _Ben’s_ scary you should see the others,’ Klaus said

‘What do you mean?’

‘Oh y’know. Throttled necks, bullet wounds, missing limbs,’ Klaus said, unable to hold himself back.

The last time he could remember talking about his ghosts, he’d been high. Nobody thought anything of it if a crack addict started talking about being haunted. Talking about it while sober though was validating. It felt like he was taking ownership. As if he were in control.

‘Broken bones,’ he continued, gaining confidence. ‘Blood stained clothes-’ he trailed off, catching sight of Diego’s horror-struck face. He cleared his throat nervously. ‘The usual.’

Diego reached out and grasped his hand, squeezing almost too tight. Klaus looked down at it doubtfully.

‘I made it weird again didn’t I?’

No,’ Diego protested. ‘No. It’s just… you shouldn’t have to see that Klaus.’

Klaus laughed at him. ‘You see that kind of thing all day.’

‘No I don’t,’ Diego said. ‘Not every day. I see drunk people on the streets, and people who slipped on the stairs, and the occasional old lady who just got lonely and rang 911 ‘cause she didn’t have anyone else to call.’

‘If I was a lonely old lady…’ Klaus began with a soft sigh. He was admiring the way the moonlight fell on Diego’s jawline. ‘…I’d call you too.’

‘Uh, thanks?’ Diego said, scrunching his nose up quizzically.

‘I bet you give them quite the thrill,’ Klaus continued, warming to his theme, and keen to change the subject. He ran a hand up Diego’s arm. ‘Turning up in your uniform, with the sleeves rolled up and your biceps half out. I bet you’ve caused a few heart attacks.’

‘Klaus?’

‘Yes?’ He leaned in to press a kiss to one of the biceps in question.

‘Shut up,’ Diego said, firmly. ‘I’m trying to talk to you.’

‘Well, I don’t know what you’re trying to _say_,’ Klaus said.

He was aware that he sounded a little petulant. He didn’t like this conversation. It felt like walking along a tightrope, with never ending drops on either side and Diego stood watching at the other end. He was scared he was going to fall before he caught up with him.

‘I’m trying to say that I care about you,’ Diego said. ‘And I…’

Klaus met his eye, immediately breathless. His heart seemed to swell in his chest. ‘Yes?’

‘I’d do anything for you.’

‘Oh,’ Klaus said. ‘Does that include stopping talking and starting kissing me?’

‘Yeah,’ Diego said, rolling over to pin him to the mattress. ‘I guess it could include that.’

…

They kissed until it wasn’t enough, until they weren’t close enough, despite the tight press of their bodies, wound together from hand to toe. When Diego finally pressed inside him, Klaus moaned with relief. He felt so incredibly close to the man, so blissfully _full _of him. Every slide of him inside felt like heaven.

They stayed pressed together until they both came, breathing heavily into each other mouths, eyes locked together.

…

Afterwards, they lay in blissful, sated silence in the darkening room.

‘Diego?’ Klaus murmured, staring up at the ceiling.

‘Yeah?’

‘Just for the record,’ Klaus said. He swallowed nervously, and the small sound seemed impossibly loud in the quiet, dark room. ‘I totally don’t love you.’

‘Klaus?’

‘Yeah?’

Diego leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. ‘I love you too.’

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now don’t think I was being lazy here. In the interests of not turning this into a total cheese fest, I tried very hard not to end on I love you.
> 
> In fact, I rewrote half the damn thing with the I love you declaration in the middle because of this. 
> 
> It didn’t work. 
> 
> It had to be the ending. 
> 
> So… just… thanks for visiting fluff central. I hope you enjoyed your stay.


End file.
